Wine in Rajasthan
 

We are going to be in Rajasthan for a couple of weeks in November. Many of the Rajasthan heritage hotels say, "Bar not available". While we enjoy a drink with dinner, one of our pleasures is finding a room with a view and enjoying some wine on a balcony or terrace before and after dinner. How available is wine in the area? What imports are available? How is the Indian wine that does exist? How expensive is any of it? In shops? Hotel bars? Lastly, can you take a bottle or 2 to your room without having to sneak it in?

In my experience in India generally you do not find many restrictions on alcohol. Indeed, most Indians enjoy a good whiskey or a cold beer, and wine is growing in popularity among the younger people in the major cities. It may be that the particular hotels you are staying in do not have a bar for various reasons. In some cases, alcohol is not served in restaurants or hotels located next door to temples or mosques; or the hotel may be owned by a Muslim and out of religious considerations, he has chosen not to sell alcohol. That would NOT mean that you would not be allowed to buy alcohol elsewhere and consume it in your room (and possibly even at dinner in the hotel’s restaurant or elsewhere in the hotel, no harm in asking the most you would get is a polite “sorry sir because of X we do not allow it”). I don’t find that Indians believe that they have to impose their religions beliefs on you; for example millions of them are vegetarians but will happily share a meal with you while you are eating meat and do not appear to be bothered at all.

I have not shopped for wine outside of hotels in Rajasthan, so can’t say whether you would find it in shops, you may in Jaipur which is a large city. I don’t know of any towns in Rajasthan that are “dry”, but I will say I have not asked particularly about this. My guess is that you would not be able to find much if any imported wine in other parts of Rajasthan. I would also worry about how it had traveled and been stored in those extreme desert temps, so I think you are better off carrying it yourself or imbibing in a good hotel bar or restaurant. If you do bring wine in with you from outside India, check your duty free limits, which I believe are one liter (i.e., one bottle) per person.

I don’t believe India has much of a native wine industry at this point. However, in larger cities like Mumbai, all types of imported wine is available and I think you would find this to be the case in the higher-end hotels in Rajasthan. One of my favorite US wineries is Cakebread, which is hard to find in retail wine shops the US (and not available here in Hong Kong), yet I do find it on hotel wine lists in Mumbai, strangely enough.

Thanks, Cicerone, for taking the time to reply in depth to my question. Sounds like we'll be OK.

In Rajasthan, Pushkar may be the only dry town. It is certain an all-vegetarian town.

Thanks again for all of your thoughtful and thorough replies!!

There is a good article about Indian wines on this website:
Upper Crust India
India's Food, Wine, and Style Magazine
http://tinyurl.com/2etrbp