Wine making-a retrospection in Indian perspective

During glut period about 20–30 per cent of fruit goes waste due to lack of proper utilization and postharvest and processing technologies. These fruits can be utilized by using them into value added products like fruit wine, beverages and juices. The consumption of wine in India is restricted to upper class in metropolitan cities as middle class and lower classes have not developed taste to wine due to lack of availability of wine in smaller towns. Import of wine in India can be minimized by proper utilization of fruit waste. Wines are the good source of flavonoids and phenolics. These are not only delicious but also have low energy and are rich source of antioxidants, vitamins and fibres. These can be served as functional foods since wines are anti-oxidatives, anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic and anti-carcinogenic due to presence of flavonoids in them. There is lot of scope of wine industry in India if awareness is created among common people about its usefulness and qualitative characters. There is also scope of research on wine making using wild fruits, vegetables and immature fruit drops and genetic work related to strain improvement of yeast.