Editors' note: To close 2011, Palate Press: The online wine magazine will be featuring some of our top stories from the past year. Our final piece comes from one of our newest contributos, Prateek Arora, who brought us details from India's seemingly obscure, but fast growing, world of wine business.
There are always certain stereotypical visuals that cross one’s mind upon the mention of a country’s name. Mention France and you see a guy (of course with a French beard), holding a baguette, staring blankly at the Eifel Tower as he adjusts the tip of his beret! Similarly for India, it is IT solutions, Bollywood, the ‘spicy’ Indian cuisine, and Taj Mahal that are the most common exports. And do we associate wines with India? Not quite.
"There is an alcoholic haze at the center of our galaxy."
Open a refrigerator in the back of many wineries and you may find some leftover pizza, cheese and fruit for tomorrow evening’s mixer, and a few rectangular foil packages that look suspiciously like bread-baking yeast. However, those packages of yeast—and they are yeast—are for the wine, not bread dough.
As more and more content and commerce go digital, it's interesting to gauge whether social media actually changes our behavior or just magnifies it.