Chateau Indage held 70% of India's wine market — then bought overseas and collapsed

Chateau Indage was founded in 1984 as Champagne India Ltd. (renamed after French objection) by Shamrao Chougule. It was India's first major wine company, exporting sparkling wine under the Omar Khayyam label with technical consultancy from Piper Heidsieck. By the mid-2000s, the company claimed 70% of the Indian wine market, its shares crossed ₹300, and Anil Ambani was a significant investor. It operated three wineries in India, two in Australia, and bottling plants in the UK.

In 2006, at the height of its success, Chateau Indage aggressively bought stakes in Australian and British wineries — an expansion that would prove disastrous. The timing could not have been worse: the global financial crisis of 2008 destroyed the value of those overseas investments just as the company had overextended itself. Domestically, the company began flooding the market with cheap, poor-quality wine and adopted a buy-one-get-one-free scheme that forced other wineries to follow suit, degrading the entire category.

By 2009–2010, the company was in dire financial straits. It owed money to banks, equipment suppliers, and grape farmers who had supplied its wineries. The Bombay High Court ordered the company to liquidate its assets. All of its stock turned to vinegar because there was no electricity where it was stored. Founder Shamrao Chougule sold his personal land to repay the grape farmers what the company owed them. He died in August 2020, the company he built having been destroyed by its own overambition.