Marketing Wine to India Part 2

Marketing Wine to India Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

When my wife and I were first married and living in the midwest we would sometimes pick up a bottle of wine for a special dinner. At that time choices were few. Mostly expensive imported wines from Italy or a less expensive domestic variety almost always from California. Fast forward 30 years later and just about everywhere you look there are dozens of varieties of wine from just about every state and country. Now winemakers from Washington State are set to kick off a marketing campaign in India early next month according to Ryan Pennington, Public Relations Director for the Washington State Wine Commission.

PENNINGTON: Certainly we’re looking to get in front of buyers who can place orders right away but beyond that we want to create better awareness and better brand recognition for Washington State in these markets so that our wineries can have a better platform when they go in to sell. Again it’s a very long term process and it’s really just about establishing our seat at the table in that market.

And while these trade trips are very important back home there is a bit of concern over this year’s wine grape crop.

PENNINGTON: We are still keeping our fingers crossed that we don’t get any additional curveballs thrown at us in terms of the crop or the harvest. We’re already prepared for a fairly significant drop in the crop this year but it sounds like some earlier concerns about mildew are waning. People are feeling better, feeling like we got a bit of a handle on it.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.