Could India be a producer of fine wine by 2058?

Made in China

By 2058, China (already the world's sixth largest wine producer and fourth in terms of area under vine) will be the world's leading producer of volume wine. “China has the opportunity, with a lot of land in the necessary temperate zones, but it will take time to identify suitable climate and terroir matches,” says Mark Parode MW, Wine Buying Director at Berry Bros. & Rudd. All that the country needs to take the world of wine by storm is the right soil, low labour costs and a soaring domestic demand. With all the essential ingredients, China can make fine wine that will rival the best of Bordeaux.

Fine wine in India?
According to Berrys, if the increasing number of vineyards in parts of western and southern India are any indication of the future, India will soon be taken seriously as a fine wine-growing nation. “Northern India also has potential,” adds Mark. With the growing local demand and promotion from the state governments, a number of Indians are turning to fine wine as a mark of social standing. India may soon challenge traditional winemaking countries thanks to technology exchange in winemaking and viticulture from Europe and Australasia.

Ready to sip on some British Bubbly?
Warmer temperatures is causing even more English land to become suitable for wine production and as per Berry's report, by 2058, the amount of English farmland devoted to wine production may rival that of France.
French Champagne producers such as Louis Roederer believes that the chalky soil of the South Downs offers a great opportunity to produce sparkling wines similar to Champagne itself. Recently, international blind-tasting competitions also saw some English sparkling wines outshining the best Champagnes.

More Future Wine Trivia
> “In the future, there will be greater diversification between specialist producers concentrating more on smaller volume, terroir-driven wines and larger concerns of producing large quantities of reliable, affordable wines,” says Mark.
> Mark believes, “There will be a greater understanding and matching of different grape varieties to micro-terroirs within individual vineyards, an understanding of soil structures and their influence, reduced intervention in the winemaking process and a greater interest in the disclosure of additives.”
> “The ability to analyse every element of wine production in the vineyard and the winery, will give greater opportunity to maximise the quality of the eventual product,” adds Mark.
> According to Mark,“Viticulture is where the next leap in development will occur. There will be a greater emphasis on water management and extremes of heat can be moderated by viticultural techniques.”
> “As screwcap has replaced cork for everyday wines, lighter, easily disposable materials are expected to gain share at entry level, but cork and glass will remain for premium products,” shares Mark.
> More state-of-the-art wineries are moving to screwcap. Stelvin will become the standard for most of the world’s wines instead of cork.
> Vineyards take up huge areas of land. But soon, genetically modified vines could be grown hydroponically in off-shore
floating vineyards.
> Because of the cost and environmental impact of shipping pre-bottled wine around the world, in the future we could see ‘wine tankers’ crossing oceans. Bulk shipments of wine will later be put into plastic or reinforced cardboard containers.
> Berrys’ experts say, “By 2058 every fine wine bottle will have a synthetic ‘smart cork’ embedded with a chip barely larger than a grain of rice. The smart cork can hold pages of information about the wine, its producer and its provenance, and the chip can both send and receive information.”
> Vast industrial vineyards could house genetically-modified grape varieties resistant to disease, and wines with lower alcohol levels will be produced thanks to genetically-altered yeast.