The elite class of the city can now hope to access best of the imported foreign wines, courtesy the Telangana government.
The government has undertaken construction of a climate controlled enclosure to store premium brands of imported wines, beer and whisky at a depot of the State owned beverages corporation at Devarayamjal near Medchal here.
The enclosure is coming up over a small area of 900 sq ft for preservation of the high-end drinks. The space would be let out on demand to licensees, including star hotels and clubs. The government is also exploring the possibility of setting up foreign liquor outlets in Hyderabad, sources said.
Excise Commissioner R.V. Chandravadan told The Hindu that there were about 350 foreign brands of liquor registered with the beverages corporation, of which he is the Managing Director, for wholesale trade but the premium ones among them could not be made available to retailers in the absence of cold storage facilities. Only regular brands of imported liquor were stored at the corporation depots.
The foreign wines arrive by shipments in air-conditioned containers from France, Australia and the United States. The price of each bottle ranged from Rs. 27,000 to Rs. 33,000. There was generally a lot of time gap in the arrival of the consignments and consumption.
In the absence of cold storage at the depots during the intervening period, the foreign companies and their network of dealers in the country did not show interest in supplies to the corporation. Even where the imported wines, beer or single malt whisky was supplied and got deteriorated due to high temperatures which soared over 40 degress Celsius in summer, the suppliers gave consent for their drain out. In fact, the beer also burst out in godowns due to gases, sources said.
Though the government was not procurer of liquor, its wholesale trade in Telangana was State controlled. The government entered into rate contract with private distilleries to provide them godown space for supplies.
