Zawlaidi Grape wine to flow in ‘dry’ Mizoram

Aizawl (PTI): Wine produced from grapes at Champhai and Hnahlan villages on the Mizoram-Myanmar border would soon quench the thirst of the people of Mizoram who have been under the dry law for 12 long years.

Wine processing from grapes was allowed in the state after the Mizoram Liquor Total Prohibition Act, 1995, imposed in the state on February 20, 1997, was amended in April, 2007.

The wine produced from the two wineries there would be named ‘Zawlaidi’ which would contain 16 per cent alcohol, state Horticulture department officials said.

Vanlalruata Chenkual, managing director of the Grape Growers Society and divisional horticulture officer of Khawzal Horticulture division, told PTI that each winery has the capacity of fermenting one lakh 650 ml bottles. One bottle would be sold at Rs 150.

Earlier, the controversial Act had prevented the grapes grown here from large-scale commercialisation even as the premium variety of Lubrusca grapes are most suitable for producing high quality and commercially viable wine.

The wine bottle would be labelled ‘Not For Sale Outside Mizoram’, Chenkual says adding it is predicted that marketing the grape wine inside the state would be more profitable than exporting the product outside the state.

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