Meghalaya: Looking beyond the grape

In the past mates of years, te.gism, the “fruit with a dot successful its name”, has caught the imaginativeness of vino lovers successful the Northeast who fancy non-grape elixirs. Also known arsenic the Himalayan cherry (Prunus jenkinsii), this fruit that grows successful the jungles of Meghalaya’s Garo Hills remained virtually chartless until botanists documented it little than a decennary ago. Today, it is cultivated by farmers successful the portion for the state’s burgeoning effect winemaking industry.

Lyang B. Sangma was understandably connected borderline erstwhile his te.gism merchandise was among six exotic effect wines and meads — alcoholic beverages made by fermenting chromatic — chosen by the Meghalaya Farmers Empowerment Commission (MFEC) to showcase astatine the Vinexpo India 2024 successful Mumbai this September. “I had my bosom successful my rima whenever an adept oregon connoisseur sipped the te.gisim vino and rolled his oregon her lingua implicit it. The absorption from astir each of them was that my merchandise has possibilities beyond my hometown of Tura and different parts of Meghalaya,” says the entrepreneur.

Situated connected debased hills, Tura is the economical and administrative hub of the occidental portion of Meghalaya, dominated by the Garo community, and astir 300 km westbound of authorities superior Shillong. Most Garo families are utilized to brewing bitchi, a smoky atom brew made from section sticky rice. After observing elders bash the fermentation process, Lyang began experimenting with different grains and chaotic fruits. He concentrated connected exotic effect wines, producing them mostly for depletion among household and friends and for gifting during Christmas and different festivals. Sensing an opportunity, helium went commercialized with his Dura Wines successful 2021, a twelvemonth earlier different entrepreneur, Keenan Marak, from the Garo Hills launched 7 United, a canned, carbonated bitchi.

17 winemakers spell commercial

Lyang’s winery, acceptable up with a machinery assistance of ₹25 lakh from the Shillong-headquartered North East Centre for Technology Application and Reach, has since been producing wines from seasonal fruits specified arsenic gooseberry, pineapple, cherry, silverberry, bayberry, achromatic plum, and jackfruit, isolated from the traditional bitchi in a bottled avatar. While the bayberry offers a saccharine note, the jackfruit vino is pungent and an acquired taste. The demand, however, has been much for the acheronian reddish te.gism, astir equalling that for the blood-red te.patang that chap Tura-based winemaker Pecindha K. Sangma has been churning retired nether her Asame brand.

Te.patang is the Garo sanction for the saccharine and sour blood fruit (Haematocarpus validus). “The popularity of this effect encouraged maine to marque wine from it on with different effect wines similar strawberry, peach, plum, pear, jamun, and mulberry. I nutrient an mean of 40 litres of season-based effect wines a month. What has besides caught the imaginativeness of consumers successful Meghalaya and elsewhere is the bluish vino made from the butterfly pea flower,” Pecindha says.

From being an occasional winemaker, Pecindha transitioned to producing wines connected a commercialized standard from her location successful 2023. Villagers cod chromatic for mead from the forests, overmuch similar they bash fruits. “People present marque a tea-like beverage from the butterfly pea flower. I thought of infusing it with chromatic vino and done proceedings and mistake and with proposal from experts, I recovered the close equilibrium with nary added sugar,” she says. Many of these entrepreneurs person made the power pursuing periodic consultations with Priyanka Save of Himachal Nectars, roped successful by the MFEC arsenic the authoritative grooming spouse for certification courses.

Today, Meghalaya has astir 30 effect winemakers (mostly successful Shillong and Tura), of whom 17 person transitioned to commercialized accumulation with modern, technological equipment. (Traditional atom vino makers are successful the thousands.) All but 3 of the 17 person established wineries and started branding their wines implicit the past 2 years; the different 3 are successful the process of scaling up their facilities. The mean outgo of mounting up a winery of 5,000-litre capableness is ₹50 lakh, excluding the onshore and buildings. About 400 families, including winemakers, farmers, and workplace workers, are straight oregon indirectly employed by the licensed wineries.

Back to the beginning

The displacement to commercialized winemaking whitethorn person happened lone successful the past 2 to 3 years, but the process to streamline the manufacture has taken 2 decades. It began with Michael Syiem of the Shillong-based Forever Young Club organising the city’s archetypal vino festival successful 2004 to showcase an array of wines made from indigenous fruits and vegetables. “The yearly lawsuit made our radical instrumentality effect winemaking seriously. Millennials recovered the exotic wines cooler than costly grape wines, which they associated much with the older generations. The propulsion came aft our commission, the lone 1 of its benignant successful the country, was established successful 2019 to correspond the voices of farmers and formulate policies and programmes for agriculture, nutrient processing, and worth concatenation development,” says B.K. Sohliya, president of the MFEC.

Unlike grapes, which person wine-grade varieties, Meghalaya’s indigenous fruits specified arsenic sohiong (Prunus nepalensis), sohphie (Myrica esculenta), sohshang (Elaegnus latifolia), sohphlang (Flemingia vestita) and sohphoh khasi (Docynia indica khasiana) turn naturally, barring the fewer introduced taxon specified arsenic strawberry, pineapple and orangish that turn successful plantations. All are single-variety; what’s consumed arsenic effect is besides utilized for making wine.

Many of these chaotic fruits are protected successful the ineffable groves of Mawphlang, a colony astir 25 km southwest of Shillong. No 1 is allowed to instrumentality thing — not adjacent a fallen leafage — from the groves that became a tourer attraction aft a British service serviceman acceptable up India’s archetypal winery successful the colony successful 1947.

Capt. Harold Douglas Hunt, considered the begetter of vino successful Meghalaya, settled down successful Mawphlang and obtained a licence to marque his Mawphlang cherry vino and brandy a household sanction successful the state. He mobilised villagers to cod sohiong and different chaotic fruits from beyond the ineffable groves, and created a well-oiled ecosystem wherein section farmers, producers, and artisans coordinated to prolong the winery until it ceased cognition successful the 1980s aft his death.

Forty years later, Capt. Hunt’s location — a heavy greenish cottage hardly 2 km from the ineffable groves — is abuzz again. Hunt’s grandson, Andrew Nongdhar, has overhauled his winery to nutrient the “old fashionable wine” successful caller bottles “as soon arsenic possible”. “Many were inspired by my gramps to brew wines from fruits and vegetables specified arsenic ginger, but winemaking remained a small-scale enactment until recently. Entrepreneurship, a alteration successful mindset, and a proactive authorities combined to assistance the winemakers modulation to commercialized production. Failing to capitalise connected this inclination would person been an injustice to the antheral who started it all,” helium says.

Government initiative

In September 2020, the Meghalaya Excise Rules (Assam Excise Rules 1945) were amended to legalise home-made wines and supply licences to section winemakers to spell commercial. “Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma and a squad of officers similar our erstwhile chairman, K.N. Kumar, played a large relation successful giving signifier to the effect vino manufacture successful Meghalaya. From 5 licensed effect winemakers 3 years ago, we person 17 contiguous — the second-highest successful the state aft Himachal Pradesh, which has 22,” says Sohliya.

The Meghalaya authorities imposes nary VAT connected effect wines compared to 4%-53% VAT successful different Indian states. The lone levies are an advertisement valorem of ₹100 per lawsuit (12 bottles) and a retailer’s lifting interest of ₹10 per case.

The authorities besides organises ‘Beyond the Grape’ shows to present vino lovers from elsewhere to Meghalaya’s effect wines, portion the MFEC has established the North East Fruit Wine Incubation Centre, a pioneering grooming installation for winemakers with an installed capableness of 1,000 litres per cycle, astatine the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition connected the outskirts of Shillong. Since its constitution successful 2023, the institute has trained 137 people, mostly from the Northeast, successful the “art of winemaking that is mostly science” arsenic Sohliya says — from effect to bottled beverage successful 90 days.

According to Rajesh Swarnakar, nonrecreational vino and tone taster, the prime of Meghalaya’s effect wines has improved markedly successful texture and taste, with a amended equilibrium of sweetener and intoxicant (10% ABV). “Currently, Meghalaya’s effect wines person immoderate region to drawback up with effect wines from Himachal Pradesh, wherever they are mostly made from apples. But then, effect winemakers successful Himachal person been successful the concern for years with bully authorities enactment portion the Meghalaya authorities has go progressive recently,” helium says.

The popularity of Meghalaya’s wines is growing, believes Swarnakar, arsenic much tourists question them retired from the shelves of liquor outlets successful Assam and Meghalaya. The mean outgo of a 750 ml vessel of effect vino is ₹600.

Checking workplace waste

The winemaking ‘renaissance’ successful Meghalaya has besides entailed taking homemakers, farmers and entrepreneurs connected vulnerability trips to the winemaking hubs of Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh. One specified farmer, Bording Ioannis Shylla, has acceptable up the state’s largest winemaking portion (10,000-litre capacity) astatine Mawkyrwat, astir 75 km southwest of Shillong, to nutrient and marketplace his brand, Damad, with his winemaker wife, Meldorah Wanniang. The mates has acquired 60 acres of onshore for farming, and they besides coordinate with adjacent villages for bulk proviso of caller fruits.

Says Sohliya: “One of the factors down the accent connected winemaking was to cheque the wastage of fruits and vegetables. Meghalaya’s terrain does not let large-scale farming, and farmers present invariably cannot merchantability each they turn oregon cod from the jungles. Their fruits of labour often rot; the complaint of wastage is akin to India’s mean of 40% for fruits and vegetables passim the proviso chain.”

He adds, “Wastage has travel down substantially with winemakers booking farms oregon trees a twelvemonth successful beforehand arsenic a winemaker needs a tonne of effect to nutrient 200 litres of wine. A husbandman who earned ₹3,000 per sohiong histrion present makes ₹15,000 a season, portion kiwi, plum, peach, pineapple, orange, and jackfruit farmers person upped their income from ₹30,000 to much than ₹3 lakh per season. There has besides been a displacement from gathering fruits from the jungle to farming them.”

Agreements with farmers are fuelling municipality vino startups specified arsenic Shillong’s Kynjai Wine launched by Dajied Shabong. “From procuring fruits from farmers and bottles from Mumbai to the last packaging, winemaking is simply a analyzable process, but rewarding for the soul. Our wines are connected par with those produced elsewhere successful India, if not the world. Things are moving accelerated successful Meghalaya and we anticipation to upgrade from selling from location to supplying to stores successful the Northeast soon,” says Shabong.

For Michael Syiem, acknowledged arsenic the antheral who sparked the winemaking question successful caller history, the manufacture successful Meghalaya is heading successful the close direction. “The enabling ambiance and the entrepreneurial thrust of a fewer are making it possible,” helium says.

rahul.karmakar@thehindu.co.in