BENGALURU: Think wine, think a posh crowd sipping from dainty crystal crockery. It is this common notion of wine drinking that Bengalurean Achaiah CS aims to change. His recently launched venture, The Cellar, Barrel and Wine, is a global online community to make wine more accessible to everyone. “There are many blogs, services offering wine subscription boxes or online courses.
But there’s no outlet for people to discuss wine drinking,” says Achaiah, a finance professional who has been a wine lover for 10 years. Since launching the community on May 15, Achaiah has seen 40-50 people sign up. “Over 20 of them are from Karnataka. Other places include USA, UK and Australia,” he adds. The community’s first discussion will kick off in two days. “I wanted to begin with everyone talking about their experiences with wine,” says Achaiah, who was inspired to create this community from his own experiences of trying to learn more about the drink.
Most information out there, according to him, borders on wines from different regions. He says there isn’t much on people’s opinions of different wines, their experiences, or a simple review. “People are hesitant to share this because one assumes that it is only a drink for the elite,” says the 36-year-old, adding, “People don’t have this apprehension towards beer or whiskey.” For Kabilan Muniswamy, joining the community was a good way to learn more about wine.
Having consumed it on a few occasions, the banking professional was keen on exploring “the wine side of life.” He says, “I like the conversations that happen over a glass of wine more than those that happen over any other alcohol beverage. The former focuses more on socialising and connecting.” There’s more than one reason to join a community like this too. “I wanted to build a network of like-minded people. This was perfect for that,” he says.