The pre-requisite for ‘Wine Tourism’ is there should be wineries which have visitor facilities, and which are accessible from one of the metro cities: face it, that’s where most present and potential wine consumers are still located.
So which (and where) are the wineries with visitor facilities, how does one contact them, and when is a good time to visit?
Maharashtra: Wineries in Nashik are a ‘no brainer’: Reveilo, Sula, Vallonne, York and Zampa are five Nashik wineries that have got facilities for visitors.
In terms of location, Zampa (Vallee de Vin) is the closest to Mumbai, being located 15 km off the highway some 20 km short of Nashik; Vallonne is another 10 km along the same road, on a promontory jutting into a lake, with a stunning view of the distant Western Ghats. However visits are by prior appointment.
Sula and York are closer to Nashik, and next to each other — both on the shores of the Gangapur Lake about 15 Km from the city (again, off the Mumbai highway) — you can walk in without prior appointment, both have tasting rooms for visitors. Sula has 2 restaurants on the property and accommodation nearby — check out their website for details.
Reveilo (‘Vintage Wines’) is the farthest, tucked away on the side of their 100-acre vineyard, in the Pimpane area, about 25 Km on the other side of Nashik — here too, one would need to call ahead to book a tasting. Fratelli Vineyards, some 150 km South of Pune, is terrific but the most difficult to access — again, call ahead to check if they will accept a visit.
Indage is on the Pune-Nashik road, 80 km from Pune — they have a restaurant on the highway for walk-ins, but don’t welcome visitors to the wineries at the back.
Karnataka: The only winery with (as yet) decent visitor facilities is Grover Vineyards, about one hour from Bangalore, past the road to the new airport and left before Devanahalli towards Doddaballarpur. They’ve got a terrific new tasting room and were completing an outdoor restaurant when I last visited two weeks back — if you’re lucky, the winemaker, Karishma (Kapil Grover’s daughter), will personally take you through the wines.
There’s also Heritage Wines, about 60 Km away from Bangalore, near Channapatna on the road to Mysore — while I’ve not been there (yet), they get a number of walk-ins from traffic on this busy road, so must be alright.
Contacts: Just Google the winery names. Here’s a directory for the lazy or It-challenged:
Reveilo: (022) 2637-0134. Their website www.reveilo.com is under construction.
Sula: www.sulawines.com gives you all the information you would want.
Vallonne: www.vallonnevineyards.com. Contact the Mumbai office for visitor bookings.
York: www.yorkwinery.com has all the details for a visitor.
Zampa: www.vallee-de-vin.com again has all the details a visitor would want.
Fratelli: www.fratelliwines.in has a number of packages — call their Mumbai office.
Grover: www.grovervineyards.in — a lovely new website, with all the information you want.
Heritage: www.heritagewinery.in — has a section on ‘wine tourism’ to help visitors.
When to go: Wine grapes in India ripen in the winter sun and are harvested from February to April, so that’s the best time to visit. Summer is a bummer, but come the monsoons the hills are clean and green and driving a pleasure, so also good to go.
Winery Tourism is a space which will grow and grow: there’s nothing quite like sitting in a well-appointed tasting room, far from the madding crowd, sipping fresh (or vintage) wines at a winery itself, and an increasing number of people are heading out to see what there’s on offer. The Sula Festival, ‘Sulafest’ 2012 (held in early February), reportedly drew a crowd of over 7,000 people, and the company regularly gets more than 300 visitors on weekends.
Cheers and bon voyage!
Alok Chandra is a Bangalore-based wine consultant
