Wi-Not is India’s only professionally qualified and managed Wine & Beverage Solutions Company. We are a collective of wine and beverage professionals who are united in our belief that all drinks are special, and different, and consequently need to be presented and marketed uniquely so. The best of brands need the best of plans and that is what we do. The Wi-Not team comprises young certified and experienced professionals who have spent a considerable amount of time working in the field of beverages and especially wine, both in India and abroad (and are still young enough to resonate with the pulse of our burgeoning market!) Big words, but the principle behind all our work and efforts is simply this: You can create a brand over and over again but unfortunately you can kill it only once!
Did you know that in Spain, children don’t traditionally receive gifts on Xmas Eve but on the day of the Epiphany, i.e. the 5th of January? Did you also know that it isn’t Santa Claus but the Three Kings (Los Reyes Magos) who bring these gifts? Given that there were three of these oriental kings, [...]
The Wine Society of India (WSI) sends out some pretty fun mixed boxes of wines. We decided to play inspector and see just how good is good so recently, we intercepted one such box, hijacked it at gunpoint, brought it home, and then made it reveal whatever it was hiding. The wines were released back [...]
Thelema is Greek for “God of Will” and this is pretty much what must have helped the Webbs install their wine dreams on their new farm (which used ot be an orchard earlier), back in the early 1980s. And that, by the way, is a Phoenix on their logo, not a duck or eagle or [...]
New Zealand wines are already well known and this time around it was the turn of Sogrape to bring in the popular Framingham range to India. Sogrape was founded in 1942 by Fernando van Zeller Guedes, a very determined entrepreneur. Presently, the third generation of the founding family is handling the company which has over [...]
The last time I read of the word sceptre, I think it was referenced in a Tintin comic. So rare today is this bejewelled accessory of yore that even the mentions are jaded. And then, when Ashish Bhasin, a vibrant young entrepreneur and inventor of all things-useful-yet-at-first-bizarre, handed me one, I didn’t know what to [...]
Among the many perky advantages of working at Wi-Not the only one singular one that boys voluntary turn up for and on time are the tastings. A regular affair on our work calendar, we all congregate and taste, mostly blind, an array of wines that we have managed to get our hands on. These can [...]
Lovely boutique style new french Manor-house property, Villa d’O, in the heart of the wine region of Bordeaux Right Bank (think St. Emilion, think Merlot and Cabernet Franc, think hilly terrain with small patchy vineyards, think super-expensive!). This changes the game plan, shaking up the classic with a generous dose of the kitsch and contemporary. [...]
India’s biggest wine brand, Sula Vineyards, rolls out it’s first Riesling.
Rioja is famous but then so are the regions of Priorat, Toro, and of course, Ribera Del Duero. This time around, I managed to take the convenient 2-hour bus-ride from Madrid to Aranda de Duero, the regions non-political capital, also famous for its ancient labyrinthine underground tunnels which are used even today to store wines. [...]
Having won the highest accolades Ribera del Duero wines are the new most talked about ones from the country. Speaking of quality this region has the maximum number of highest quality DO (Denominacion de Origen) designation wines in the country. All thanks to its unique and meticulous winemaking. The region is noted for its long [...]
Spain’s prime red grape variety Garnacha-based wines (or Grenache as known internationally) are an anonymous heroine of modern winemaking. One region that does justice to the charm of this variety is the north-easterly located region of Aragon. With a unique geographical location and a surrounding competition from La Rioja, Catalonia, Navarra, Castilla y Leon, and [...]
It would not be wrong if we term Navarra as a ‘distant cousin’ of their French neighbour, primarily because of its influence. The similarity spills over from the vine variety to the whole philosophy behind the wine production. The reason behind the stark resemblance is the long French rule that the Spaniards have undergone leaving [...]
Jordan was one of those few to claim their hand in giving wine to the world. Nevertheless, it was not to be seen anywhere on the world wine map. The wineries used local grapes to make not-so-appreciable wines. Lack of viticultural and vinification knowledge and inappropriate viticultural areas held-back the country from displaying its true caliber. It [...]
When the Republic of India was formed, the Constitution gave each state the right to frame their excise laws. Except the two dry states of Gujarat and Mizoram, every state has a different approach to price the wines. The level at which the government involves itself in the process of procuring the wines varies from [...]
Hegarty Wines is a co-concern of Sir John Hegarty of Bartle Bogle Hegarty. In the field of marketing and communication, Sir Hegarty is already a well known and much celebrated icon. He has even been knighted by the Queen. But stating all this could be like laying the gridwork for the classic fallacy, commonly known [...]
