The second Shillong Wine Festival, held recently, was a huge success. Forever Young Sports Club were the organizers. The organizers invited winemakers from across Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam to present their home made spirit at the event.

Home made wines enjoy a very good following in many parts of   the North-Eastern region. The idea was to provide a platform to the winemakers to showcase their    skills and provide them with that little bit of exposure and encouragement needed to spur them to try newer things. Ginger, fruits like strawberry, lichi, pineapple, passion fruit and even banana was fermented to produce a variety of wines for this festival.

Michael Syiem, president of    the Forever Young Sports Club, believes that winemaking has the potential to be a big business in the North-East. He recently met the State Tourism Minister, who is understood to have assured of State Government’s desire to frame a policy to legalise the trade. The art of wine making at home is very different from the technique employed by commercial producers. The home process does not involve much machinery. It is an age old art handed over to generations by ancestors. No license is required for making wine at home even for commercial purpose. The organizers just procured a temporary bar license to sell the wines displayed at the festival.

The festival saw the participation of some very interesting people. Veteran winemaker Brian Kharpan Daly was one amongst them. He prepared some exquisite stuff for the    festival. He also talked highly on  the potential of wine making in       the North-Eastern states. He felt that Meghalaya cold definitely carve out a niche for itself with proper technological support to convert   its tradition of wime making in to a commercial opportunity. Wines made from sohmon and sohiong, both berries, are two of the local specialities of Meghalaya. Wines made from peach, plum, pear,    guava and indigenous fruit called sohpoh khasi were also available at the festival.

Wine connoisseur Paula Haden of Australia was originally drawn to Shillong by the Autumn Festival but decided to extend her stay to sample wine at the festival. After tasting the homemade wines, she was sure that this would grow in to a full fledged industry very soon. Julian Laloo is the Head of the Department of English at a reputed college in Shillong, also enjoys reputation as a winemaker. Julian presented his new concoction – a beautiful blend of pear and peach – at the festival. Given the big success of the festival, Julian felt that many people would shift their loyalty to homemade wine after the festival.

The Shillong wine Festival was a classy affair. Wine drinking was accompanied by a spread of barbecued pork and green vegetables. There was live performance of western classical and rock bands to keep one in   great mood. After Shillong celebrated the Wine Festival, it was the turn of Mizoram. But it was very different in form and character. The grape cultivators of Mizoram organized the the first ever grand wine festival at Hnahlan village.

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