London: In next 50 years, India's growing wine industry is likely to challenge the supremacy of traditional wine-making countries, a report has said.

The Indian wine industry was currently in its infancy, but technology exchange in winemaking and viticulture from Europe and Australasia meant India was likely to challenge the supremacy of traditional wine-making countries, a report on the state of the industry in 50 years titled "The Future of Wine" said.

"India has the potential to embrace wine in a big way and the economic muscle to dictate to producers what style of wine they should be making," Alun Griffiths, a contributor to the report, said.

In the report, an analysis of the state of the industry in 50 years, the leading wine merchants Berry Brothers and Rudd said that ambitious Indians turning to fine wine as a mark of social standing will drive India's wine industry to new heights.

It said that the market for wine in India was growing at over 25 per cent per year. If the increasing number of vineyards planted in parts of western and southern India were any indication, India will soon be taken seriously as a fine wine-growing nation, the report said.

"By 2058 it will be quicker to count those countries that don t make wine than to count those that do. India will have embraced the grape, foreign know-how having identified the best sites for both bulk and single estate wines," Jonathan Ray, Wine Editor of the Daily Telegraph said.

France has led the way (in both performance and price) when it comes to high-end, premium vintages, but the report said that stiff competition from around the world could soon see the fine wine league table turned on its head.

Source : PTI