Fruitful Efforts

“When we were starting off,I felt that we should not to go with the traditional,grape wines. Almost all wineries in India use grape,yet fruit wines is a relatively unexplored area,” says Jagatania. Thus the company started researching on fruits which would make the best wine. After a false start with pomegranate,they were lucky with pineapple,and launched what is the country’s first pineapple wine,named Quins,after the breed of pineapple used for the wine,a variety called Queens.

The going has been tough – the final product is a clear liquid,but a lot of work has gone in for it to reach that colour. “Pineapple is a fibrous fruit,and we knew we couldn’t sell the wine with that texture. Getting rid of the fibres in the wine itself was the biggest challenge we have come across and it was a hurdle that took about 10 months to cross,” says Prabhune.

The wine itself is fruity and ‘off-dry’,and is a perfect complement to mushroom,paneer,chicken and fish-based dishes. The wine is also extremely strong,at 13.7 per cent alcohol per volume. Taking about 8-10 months to mature,the wine is stored in huge wine barrels with a capacity of 5000 litres at a constant temperature of 17C.

And what of working on other fruits? “Well,we are looking at Kokum and mango wines,but we will soon be coming out with apple sparkling wine and strawberry wine,” says Prabhune.