Best of India's Fine Wine Hot Spots

Ten years into its economic boom, India has transformed itself: Though poverty is still widespread, millionaires abound. Their new drink of choice?

Wine.

Though the annual per capita intake of wine is low, among India's rapidly expanding middle and upper classes, wine drinking is the latest craze. Like luxury cars and watches, it is an obvious badge of "I've arrived"--particularly for the 20-somethings staffing India's new call centers with lots of disposable income to burn--and drink.
In Depth: India's Top Spots For Fine Wine

Wine sales have grown a staggering 30% annually for the last five years to the tune of 700,000 cases a year. This is despite religious and social taboos against drinking alcohol--a phenomenon many refer to as "the Indian paradox."

About 40% of the wine consumed in India is being poured in Mumbai, India's party and entrepreneurial capital, where packed wine bars like Olive's Kitchen and Bar have proliferated and Bollywood and cricket stars, ex-pats and investment bankers are lining up for their glass of champagne or chardonnay.

Wine classes and seminars are being offered at every turn. Those new to the grape can read all about sniffing and swirling in the glossy India Sommelier magazine. It's drawing such reputable contributors as Jancis Robinson, editor of The Oxford Companion to Wine and the wine correspondent for The Financial Times.

Large wine makers from France, Spain, Italy and Australia are vying for a piece of India's vast market potential. It's estimated that by 2010, wine consumption will have jumped to 1.8 million cases annually.

Sopexa, the food and beverage marketing and promotion board of France, set up shop in Delhi to preach "buying French." Faced with competition from New World wines, Asia, India in particular, has become a big-stakes playground for French wine makers.

They'll have to compete with Indian wines, which are also making a name for themselves and stepping out on the global market.

Growing Grapes
The three largest wineries of India are Chateau Indage, Grover Vineyards and Sula Vineyards. The latter was founded by Rajeev Samant, a Stanford grad who worked in finance at Oracle (nasdaq: ORCL - news - people ) before he returned to his native India to plant mango trees in the late 1990s and discovered his soil was better suited for grapes. His winery is in Nashik, in the state of Maharashtra, also known as "the Napa Valley of India."

Samant's timing could not have been better: He released his first cases of sauvignon blanc and chenin blanc (two wines that go down well with India fare) in 2000--just when India's boom was uncorked.

Samant has opened an industrial-chic wine bar, The Tasting Room in Mumbai, that attracts a celebrity clientèle. Chateau Indage plans to open 1,000 casual wine bars-- Starbucks-style (nasdaq: SBUX - news - people )-- across the country to expose Indians of lesser means to the pleasures of sipping primarily Indian wine with their local cuisine.

What's behind the public's growing fascination with wine? Weigh in. Add your thoughts in the Reader Comments section below.

Rajat Parr, the wine director for Michael Mina Restaurant in San Francisco (which carries a Sula Vineyards sauvignon blanc on its prestige list) says many wines pair incredibly well with spicy Indian food--especially wines low in alcohol like rhone wines or grenache. Among whites, rieslings, most alsatian wines and semillons also work.

When he was last in Delhi visiting relatives, he dined at the Imperial Hotel, where he was impressed with a riesling he sipped at The Spice Route restaurant at the posh Imperial Hotel.

Dishing The List
We scoured the country to find other restaurants with compelling wine lists. Not surprisingly, most of the finer lists were found in hotel restaurants; most chefs in India can't afford to open restaurants on their own, and when they do, it's hard for their wine lists to compete with those of the grand hotels.

Two notable exceptions are the very hip Indigo in Bombay, with its eclectic wine list, which boasts better Indian wines and Diva, the darling of Delhi's Italian ex-patriot community, which offers surprising breadth, from champagnes to grappas.

Both received Wine Spectator's basic Award of Excellence last year--two of 20 restaurants in India to have gotten the nod from the magazine.

Masala Art, Orient Express and Tea House of the August Moon, all in the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel in Delhi, received the second-tier award, the Best Award of Excellence, as did the famous Zodiac Grill in the Taj Mahal, Mumbai, which has a surprising number of verticals among its French and California selections.

For that you can credit Richard Dean, sommelier at Campton Place in San Francisco, who has been consulting for the luxury Taj Group in India for several years.

Not only did he compose a list of over 500 labels, but he also helped train hotel restaurant staff--an interesting challenge given that many do not drink--or even sniff--alcohol.

"We had to distinguish all the wines by color," says Dean. "It was very interesting and surprisingly effective."

No restaurant in the Taj lineup, or in all of India for that matter, received the Wine Spectator's Grand Award. But, by all accounts, it's only a matter of time.