Editor's note: As the number of countries making wines increases, it is but natural to compare their products. One such country is India with many emerging wineries, not all of which necessarily use homegrown grape juice.

Fast becoming a preferred destination of the world's affluent professionals for their frequent holidays, India is a growing market in many sectors. Vigorous young Indian entrepreneurs are answering the call for a touch of luxury in several areas, not least being its emerging wine industry.

Each of India's 29 states and six (centrally governed) union territories have their own rules & regulations, duties & taxes. Admirably, in a bid to lower prices and bolster sales of locally produced wines, the government in the western state of Maharashtra has exempted them from excise duty and sales tax. Perhaps other states will follow suit.

Here's one interesting fact. Even though India is in the northern hemisphere, it harvests its grapes in the February/March season. It may seem strange because the rest of the northern hemisphere harvests by October. But the Indians have a valid reason for that: winters are pleasantly warm in most of the sub-continent and grapes ripen best then.

During the past couple of weeks I've tasted several wines made in India, mostly varietals from Chateau Indage, Sula Vineyards, Renaissance Wines and Grover Vineyards. It was an eye-opener, and not without a catch or two.

Chateau Indage in the Sahyadri Valley of Maharashtra is the largest producer of wines in India. At 800 meters above sea level, they grow Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Syrah, Cabernet Franc and some others. The 12 wines produced from these vines are good, most of them for export only. The Mist of Sahyadri Chardonnay Chateau Indage 2002 is one of their best. Like other wineries, they have celebrated French winemaker Michel Rolland on their consultants' list.

In an excepted practice in India, Indage also imports wines in bulk from Australia and South America and bottles them under its label to be sold in the domestic market. India's bizarre licensing laws in the 1980s stipulated that vineyards could make wines for export only. If they wanted to sell them in the country, they would have to ship in bulk from abroad and just bottle on site! Rules have changed since then but common practice is taking a while to catch up.

Renaissance Wines are experimenting with Italian varietals as opposed to the rest of the competitors that make Californian New Age style wines in India.

Probably the most consistent of the wines I tasted was the Grover's Viognier. Others of note came from India-made Syrah (Chateau Indage) and Chenin Blanc (Sula Vineyards). It's early days yet for Renaissence Wines.

Sprawling over 200 acres, Grover Vineyards is in the Nandi Hills near Bangalore, India's IT hub down south. Grover harvests French varietals exclusively, and in 1996, noted champagne producer Veuve Clicquot took a stake in the vineyards.

Grover's Viognier Clairette 2003 the two varietals create a light gold wine with aromas of ripe passion fruit, yellow peaches and apricot with just a hint of honey. Crisp and best served chilled to 12 degrees Celsius, the Viognier Clairette leaves the palate refreshed and invigorated.

The top-of-range La Reserve 2003 red wine is Grover Vineyards' first barrel-aged wine. In the French tradition of Bordeaux winemaking, La Reserve is aged in French oak to achieve ripe fruit flavours with a touch of spice.

Sula Chenin Blanc is a semi-dry, refreshingly light wine with ripe pineapple and stone fruit flavours.

Sula red Zinfandel is a luscious, jammy red Zinfandel. The nose is blackberry rich with notes of cinnamon and black plum flavours. It's spicy and supple.

The first time I heard of Indian wines was in the early 1990s when a friend picked up a bottle of Omar Khayyam sparkling wine at a shop in Hong Kong. It was cheap as chips, good value and had lots of flavours.

Of course as with other countries such as China, wine isn't new to India. A rough, medium dry wine called soma was made in India with local grapes about 5,000 years ago, but phyllorexa killed them off. Soma is mentioned in Vedic scriptures and the earliest visitors to India were treated to wines that rivalled anything produced in Europe.

There is now a wealthy, confident and well-travelled metropolitan elite in many parts of Asia. Such people are looking to stake their place in an ever-shrinking world of sophisticated tastes. Wine speaks to them in a way it didn't to an earlier generation, which is why there are thriving wine clubs and bars in Beijing and Hong Kong. And that is why Indian newspapers reported a 3,000-strong attendance at a recent wine festival in India's commercial capital Mumbai, despite the fact that alcohol advertisements are banned in India.