At Sula Vineyards – A Video:
Our visit to Sula Vineyards and Winery was very entertaining and
greatly enlightening. We have experienced and learned a lot here!
When one is in Nashik on pilgrimage or as a tourist it has become a
must to visit a vineyard and winery of which there are many around Nashik. And
we choose Sula Vineyards for our tour not only because we are familiar with
some of their wines but because of the vineyards' overall popularity.
The area around Nashik is well-known for table grapes for a very
long time, as the soil, the climate, the surrounding hills and the availability
of water in abundance were best suited for grape cultivation. However, it was
in the late 1990s that Mr Rajeev Samant established a vineyard and winery here
and named it Sula Vineyards after his mother whose name is Sulabha. Their wines
appeared in the market in 1999. This was the first winery in Nashik which led
to a few more, transforming Nashik into India’s Wine Capital. Today Sula
Vineyards is spread over an area of 3000 acres. It has grown into India’s
largest and most awarded wine brand. They make several types of wines, white
wines, red wines and rosé wines. Their wines are popular abroad too, they
export to over 30 countries.
Our tour consisted of a stroll in a portion of the vineyard, a Winery
Tour, a Personalised Wine Tasting experience, a visit to the Bottle Shop, the
Souvenir Shop and the restaurants Rāsā, and Little Italy. I shall explain these
activities briefly below. The fare for this all-access tour is Rs. 600, which
is redeemable at the Souvenir Shop, Bottle Shop and/or at the two restaurants.
The Winery Tour was a guided tour of the winery by a lady, a Sula
wine expert. She took us into all the areas of the winery explaining to us the
entire process of white and red wine making. She explained to us about Red wine
grapes and White wine grapes and their cultivation. And then about harvesting
at the right time by testing the sweetness, acidic nature and flavour of the
grapes. This was followed by showing us and explaining the equipment used for
crushing and pressing the grapes. The fresh juice of grapes containing seeds,
solids and skins so collected is called ‘Must’. After this, the Red variety
grapes ‘Must’ is allowed to sit to get tannins, flavour and colour, this time period
is called ‘Maceration’. White wine grapes ‘Must’ does not go through the
process of ‘Maceration’. The ‘Must’ so collected from Red and White wine is
then pressed (called Pressing) to separate the grape juice from the fibre and
other solids. The juice so collected is called ‘Free Run’. This ‘Free Run’ is
now stored in steel containers and left alone for fermentation. Even without
the addition of any external yeast the process of fermentation would start
within a few hours with the help of yeast available in the air. The yeast will
break down the sugar in the juice into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The gas
would escape and we are left with the fermented beverage. This is a process
that would take just about a fortnight but depending upon the type of wine and
its characteristics great control in timing is taken at this stage. Then after
a process called Clarification and filtration, the wine is directly bottled or
it may go for further ageing. A lot of wine-making experience and techniques
along with many periodic tests take place during the entire process of making
wine.
Ageing is done in bottles, stainless steel or ceramic tanks or Oak
barrels. Many winemakers prefer ageing in Oak barrels as it helps in oxygen
exposure and enables the wine to reach a greater flavour. You can see us in the
photographs of the Wine Cellar with these Oak barrels. The Wine Cellar is
maintained in a controlled environment and the wine is tested from time to time
for further processing. The Oak barrels are from France and USA. The cost of
each barrel is over Rs. 60,000/-!
After this tour, we went into the winetasting room for the
Personalised Wine Tasting experience. This involved explanation, and tasting
under closely monitored guidance… of six Sula award-winning wines, (white, red
and rose) with a platter of pairing foods like cheese and biscuits. All this
was done with the basic training of how to tell good wines from bad ones and to
prepare one with the basics required to venture into the world of wine tasting
and relishing. Wine etiquette like smell, temperature, swirling and food
pairings were some of the major takeaways of this session.
We then spent some time shopping at the Sula Souvenir shop and the
Bottle shop. And then we had lunch at their Rāsā restaurant. Then we visited
the nearby Gangapur Dam on Godavari River, the MTDC Refreshments and River
entertainment zone there and then we visited the ancient Sri Somehswar Temple on
the banks of Godavari River. This entire trip from Nashik to back took us five
hours.
As I mentioned at the beginning of the article our visit to Sula
Vineyards and Winery was very entertaining and greatly enlightening. We have
experienced and learned a lot here. Truly a memorable visit.
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