KEY POINTS:
Gooseberry, grapefruit and underlying passionfruit aromas are blending with cardamom, coriander, cumin and garam masala as winemakers begin to send premium New Zealand wines to India.
Marlborough winery Saint Clair Estate is the latest to announce its entry into India, which has traditionally been a nation of tea and spirit drinkers.
"For us it's another market opportunity and it's a market where we see significant potential growth in," said Saint Clair owner Neal Ibbotson.
Despite having a population of more than one billion, India's wine market is tiny: just 635,000 cases of wine were consumed last year.
However, Ibbotson said, that was expected to grow by 30 per cent a year for the next five to 10 years.
Liquor advertising is banned in India so marketing relies on wine shows and word-of-mouth to spread the word, said Ibbotson.
"At the moment it's very much top end, so that tends to be into the top hotels and top independent restaurants."
Volumes Saint Clair is exporting to India are very small at this stage - just 56 cases of Marlborough sauvignon blanc in the initial order - but it plans to follow it up with some of its red wines.
"A large percentage of wine that is drunk in India is red wine so that's where we'll follow up with the pinot noir and the merlot," said Ibbotson.
Villa Maria began exporting its award-winning wines to India two to three years ago and export manager Ian Clark says although volumes are quite small, they are rising every year.
More importantly for local winemakers, Indian consumers favour premium sauvignon blanc and pinot noir, he said.
"The [Indian] market's looking for elegance, delicacy and flavour, so New Zealand is well positioned," said Clark. "They like the varieties New Zealand's really good at."
New Zealand Winegrowers chief executive Philip Gregan said NZ winemakers were witnessing more growth in Asia, including India, than ever before.
"We just did some promotional events in Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai and we had an absolutely fantastic response at those," said Gregan.
"We were delighted and a little bit caught by surprise by the level of interest."
