Finally, the discerning wine drinkers in Chennai and the rest of Tamil Nadu can now buy a bottle of India-made Sula brand of premium wines at the Tasmac (The Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) outlets.
Also, hotels can purchase Sula wines through TASMAC quickly.
Sula Vineyards, India’s leading wine producer, has just become the first national wine brand to be sold in the Tasmac outlets.
Elite outlets
Until now, no India-made wine was allowed to be sold in Tamil Nadu, while all other States allowed.
Of course, hotels in Tamil Nadu could buy from the Indian wine producers. It used to take a couple of months for hotels to get their wines after placing the orders. Now, even hotels could get Sula wines in a day.
Initially, all elite outlets in Chennai and some select shops of Tasmac in Coimbatore will be selling Sula brand of wines, which will come in six different variants including red, white and sparkling and be priced upwards of ₹1,000. Two more variants of Sula wines will come in a month’s time.
“Since Tasmac outlets are not air-conditioned and our wines are quite sensitive to heat. So we have taken a decision that we are not interested in having the wines available in each and every Tasmac outlet,” said Rajeev Samant, Founder & CEO, Sula Vineyards.
Consumption pattern
In other States, about 80 per cent plus of the consumption of wines happen in the capital city. So, going by that experience, Sula expects about 80 per cent of its wine to be distributed in Chennai and 20 per cent will go outside of Chennai — mainly to Coimbatore.
Under ₹1,000 on the anvil
Sula’s production capacity is more than a million cases a year. “Last year, we became the first Indian wine-maker to cross the one million case mark in a year. We are now the largest wine producer in Asia outside of China,” said Samant.
He said the company was working on introducing wines in the sub-₹1,000 range, which, it thinks, will drive the consumption.
Chennai-based TriBeca Beverages will be the distributor of Sula Wines in the State.
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