Last week I visited what surely is the best and biggest new winery in India in the last 10 years: Alpine Winery, situated about 120 km from Bangalore, off the road to Mysore.
Now we all know that setting up vineyards and a winery is an expensive and time-consuming affair; it takes at least three years from planting the vines before the grapes are good enough to turn into wine. And, capital costs of setting up vineyards start at Rs 5 lakh-6 lakh per acre (including the land), while a winery will cost about Rs 5 crore for a 200-KL capacity setup. Well, Raghavendra Gowda has spent seven years and Rs 125 crore setting up what are probably the most technically-advanced vineyards and winery in Asia. Along the way he’s become an expert in viticulture (the science of planting and managing vineyards), and has done path-breaking research in the selection of appropriate rootstock and vine clones best suited to his particular terroir.
Initial capital costs have been high for Gowda as he’s set up infrastructure to convert all 1,250 acres of his ancestral land into vineyards over time, and has used the very best equipment. The winery has an initial capacity of 400,000 litres, expandable to 1.2 million litres by simply adding more fermentation and storage tanks. All equipment is world-class and almost everything has been imported from Europe – from automatic drip irrigation by Netafim (Israel) and pumps by Groundforce (UK) to Europress wine presses (Germany) and wine tanks from Burgenland (Austria).
In this, he has been advised since 2008 by one of the best wine-making consultants in the world: Stephane Derenoncourt from Bordeaux (go ahead, Google him) and his team of vendors and vintners – several of whom have spent months in this rural wilderness putting the project together.
The first vintage (2011) is impressive: 3 reds (which I’ve tasted), and 3 whites (which they will allow me to taste only after a month) at three different price and quality levels – entry, regular, and reserve, sold under the ORO, VINDIVA Classic, and VINDIVA Reserve labels, respectively.
The reds are a blend of Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, and re-tasting confirms my initial impressions: technically, the wines have absolutely no faults, with firm tannins and good fruit. The Reserve is more complex, and softer; aging in French oak casks has rounded off the wine, giving the young grape a ripe smoothness.
Since this is an integrated vineyard-cum-winery, the company decides the grape quality and the grapes. Yields are kept ruthlessly down (2-3 MT/acre) through bottom pruning and thinning of bunches, while waiting in the wings for future harvests are a slew of grapes not common in India: Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Tempranillo.
Take my word for it, this winery is going to redefine quality standards for Indian wines. Of course, it’s early days yet – marketing and distribution of wine takes time and money in India, particularly as new entrants cannot use conventional marketing tools to generate awareness and trials. But a good start.
Wines I’ve been drinking: the VINDIVA Reserve Shiraz 2011 (Rs 875 in Bangalore) has a deep, dark red colour with a complex fruity aroma with hints of oak, soft silky tannins (with fruit and spice notes) and a very good and long finish. Terrific stuff, try it.
The writer is a Bangalore-based wine consultant
