ZAWLAIDI

Red wine to flow from Mizo wineries

Two facilities to cost Rs 16 crore, to churn out 20000 bottles a year

Two wineries will be set up in Champhai and another in Hnahlan in west Mizoram at the cost of Rs 16 crore to churn out 20,000 bottles a year with a capacity of 750ml read wine in each bottle.

These will be sold at Rs 150 each under the brand name of Zawlaidi, a Mizo word meaning love aid.

The Mizoram government has relaxed its stringent prohibition laws under the Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition Act, which has been in force in the Christian state since 1997, to help the unhindered marketing of this wine with an alcohol content of 14 per cent.

The state’s church lobby has also approved the slight relaxation of dry laws.

Altogether 98 vendors have applied for the dealership to sell this wine within the state.

The state government has clamped an embargo on the export of Zawlaidi outside the state.

The bubbly wine will be manufactured from the crisp blue lubrusca variety of grapes and is expected to go down well with wine connoisseurs.

Lubrusca is a South American variety of grape cultivated in Karnataka and Maharashtra.

The director of horticulture, Samuel Rosanglura, said the wine would soon be able to carve out a niche among the wine-lovers of the state.

The grapes, first planted in the late nineties, are now immensely popular among cultivators in the state.

Grape cultivation was initially restricted to two locations — Champhai and Hnahlan.

At present, The Champhai Grape Growers Society has nearly 325 families engaged in grape cultivation.

The farmers harvested 479 quintals of grapes last year and are now about to expand cultivation to 3,000 acres.

Hnahlan is expected to yield 7,910 quintals of grape this year and Champhai’s farmers are set to harvest a record 2,056 quintals at the end of this year.

According to sources in the horticulture department, liquor major Shaw Wallace has helped to provide expertise regarding the international standards of winemaking.

J.V.M. Mohan Rao, a wine and spirits consultant in Andhra Pradesh, was engaged by the Mizoram Grape Growers Society for help in grape cultivation.

Lalruata Chenkual, a grape grower in the state, said, “After the state reaped the success in the cultivation of rose and anthurium flowers, it is now the turn of grapes to add smiles to growers in the state.”