Sonal Holland MW (Image Source: sonalholland.com)

If you’re someone in the wine trade, or perhaps if you’re someone in the business of import/export, you may well already know that India is a hugely important market that simply cannot be ignored. While the country’s wine market is still in its nascent stages of development, the dramatic transformation it has undergone in the last decade cannot be understated.

Sonal Holland's sharing on successfully navigating the Indian wine market at Vinexpo Asia 2025.

During this year’s Vinexpo Asia 2025, we were fortunate to catch insights on how to navigate India’s burgeoning and evolving wine market from none other than Sonal Holland MW. If you had to name someone from India who really knows their stuff about wine, and if you had to name someone in the wine community who really knows their stuff about India – there’s no person better suited than Sonal Holland. As the first and only person in India to earn the internationally-acclaimed Master of Wine title, Sonal has become the leading voice in India’s wine landscape, consistently contributing to wine education and moving the industry forward in the country.

India’s Emerging Wine Landscape

Sonal opens with sharing about key regions to look out for in Urban India that are major growth engines for wine, particularly the major cities of Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Delhi NCR.

Mumbai has the consumer base with the highest awareness of wines and is the largest import gateway with 80% of India’s imported wine entering through the city. As such, Mumbai sees a lot of both internationally- and locally-made wines consumed here, with consumers generally being price-sensitive and premium-seeking.

Bengaluru – is often dubbed as India’s Silicon Valley – is one of the fastest growing markets for wine. With high literacy rates and consumers’ penchant for more premium and sophisticated shops, wine consumption has seen a steady rise in Bengaluru.

Delhi NCR is also an attractive market with strong demand for wines. The city is a political hub, dominated by affluent businessmen, politicians, and wealthy farmers. Sonal shares that consciousness of social status is an important consideration for Delhians, making it an ideal target market for luxury brands and premium categories like wine.

While overall knowledge about wines in the country remains limited, there are noticeable preferences that Indian wine drinkers have. Sonal tells us that red wines are the most popular in India, owing to the strong imagery of red wine in Indian consumers’ minds, as well as drinkers’ preference for the smoother and fruitier flavour profiles of red wine as compared to white wine. Rosé has also been gaining popularity, with many new drinkers of the category beginning their journey with rosé before progressing to drinking red wines.

Sonal’s experience in the wine industry and her perceptiveness on the Indian market led us to an insightful exploration of what it takes to successfully navigate this expanding space. Here are our key takeaways from Sonal’s insightful sharing, summarized into 3 big ideas that can be useful for any producer or distributor looking to break into and succeed in India’s wine market:

1. Strategic branding is key to tap into India’s rapidly growing wine market

While India’s alcohol beverage market is primarily dominated by whisky and beer, wine is on a promising trajectory to become mainstream, especially among younger consumers and women. As India’s economy grows and incomes rise, an increasing trend of premiumisation is seen across consumers’ tastes and preferences amid rising demand for luxury cars, branded goods, and fine experiences. With double-digit year over year sales growth in India’s wine category, it’s evident that wine is well-positioned in the psychology of Indian consumers to meet the country’s growing appetite for some of the finer things in life.

Tonique - India's largest alcohol beverage retailer

Sonal also shared with the audience that while the majority of India’s wine drinkers are still largely price-driven, familiarity is also an extremely important cue that drives consumer purchase. As Indian consumers’ knowledge of wines is still relatively limited, the challenge for winemakers and distributors with aspirations to enter the Indian wine market is to build a brand name with a sense of importance that can resonate with the Indian consumer. Sonal’s insight is clear – the more expensive and important it sounds, the more likely it is to stick in the customer’s mind.

2. The cultural appeal of wine is shifting in India – especially among Indian women and younger drinkers

Sonal shines some light on what she calls the trilogy of appeal of wine drinking in India – that wine is perceived as healthy, aspirational, and socially acceptable. Interestingly, the perceived health benefits of wine relative to other heavier alcoholic beverages like whisky rings in the minds of Indian drinker. Wine is also used to signal sophistication and is an aspirational category, with wine often being purchased for gifts. Sonal also highlighted women as an especially powerful and important demographic. For a long time, whisky was the go-to drink for many Indians, especially for Indian men. As consumer preferences start to shift towards wine, Indian women started to consume wine as frequently as men because of the softer image that it had compared to whisky, making the drink socially acceptable to be consumed in public. As such, the act of drinking wine has provided an empowering and liberating avenue for women to come to the table to sit and drink with the men in their family, paving the way for more socialization between men and women in the domestic space.

Sonal Holland MW has helped India fine its love with wines!

The younger generation of drinkers is also an extremely significant demographic for wine, as Sonal illustrated with a stunning statistic – every year, India adds twenty million people to the legal drinking age. Young people in India are starting to have higher disposable incomes, and their alcohol beverage consumption patterns reveal that young Indians are defying the trend of young people globally tending towards sobriety. This cultural difference and the staggering size of this demographic makes the young Indian market especially important for wine producers and distributors to take note of.

3. Success in entering the Indian wine market hinges on finding the right import partner

While Indian drinkers largely prefer international wines for their perceived quality, the market is still largely price-sensitive, and international brands looking to enter the Indian wine market must still compete with the more affordable, local alternatives. Yet, the payoff to bring wines to the country can be significant. Given wine’s positioning as an affluent product in India, the pricing multiplier for wines in India can be 7X their domestic retail prices for the more expensive brands, and up to 10X for mass brands in general. That is to say, if a wine may cost $3 in its domestic market, its retail price could be up to $30 in India!

Sula Vineyards is one of India's most well-known homegrown local winemakers.

Importing wines into the country can also be a very complicated endeavour to manage with a web of different state-level import and sales policies that can make distribution complex, which increases the dependence on local importers. To add to this complexity, complex regulations surrounding wine label registrations can be a huge turn off to wine traders in India too. The country requires all wine labelling to be compliant with FSSAI regulations, which means that importers would request special India-specific labels for any brand of wine to be brought into the country. The hassle and cost of this alone is enough to be the single biggest deal breaker for many to do trade with India.

India's Food Safety and Standards require for special labels wines sold in the country (Image source:  The Happy High)

Sonal shared that given the complexity of navigating the wine trade, that the key to success for new entrants to India is to find the right importer with a proven track record and financial stability. Importers are essential gatekeepers to both consumers and trade, having an important role to play in having strong networks and experience in the business. Nonetheless, winemakers will need to carefully navigate the traditional and nascent state of the industry – wine importers in India are dominated by family businesses that can be less corporate and institutionalized than their international counterparts, being much more owner-driven. Sonal also shared the seven key factors that Indian wine importers evaluate brands on:

1. A wide price range: From value-for-money to premium
2. Scale and diversity: Large wineries with multi-regional offerings
3. Popular styles: Availability of best-selling styles across budget levels
4. Awards and recognition: This would help make wines easier to promote and gain trust among consumers
5. Niche segments: Including different positionings such as low-alcohol, organic, and natural wines
6. Marketing collaboration: Brands that provide support for tastings, events, influencer collaborations
7. Packaging appeal: Shelf visibility is important for consumer recall

The Jio World Centre in Mumbai - this year's venue for Vinexpo Mumbai 2025

Sonal’s sharing at the 2025 edition of Vinexpo Asia in Singapore wrapped up with the topic of the importance of the relationship with local importers, and to that end she also dispensed the advice that Vinexpo was a great way to meet other importers and distributors as well. Producers and distributors keen to make connections with industry insiders or even potential importers can look forward to Vinexpo Mumbai 2025, which is happening from 3^rd to 4^th October 2025!

Till next time, happy sipping!

@ChopstickPride