Brand New World

For Grover Vineyards, it was the culmination of two decades of trying to overthrow our loud and tawdry drinking habits. You don8217;t buy a GV to get buzzed, and it8217;s not cheap enough for the dorm rooms. But now they have another lab rat. The company, which built its name on producing good-quality wines that sell for up to Rs 500, is about to get into the business of low-end wines that will go for under Rs 250.

But while other market players produce their cheaper varieties with table grapes, the Grovers have found a way to exploit a business opportunity without compromising their reputation as a company that doesn8217;t sacrifice quality for easy profits.

8216;8216;For years we kept away from the lower end of the market because we didn8217;t want to make them with table grapes; that8217;s like trying to make biryani with ration rice. Now we8217;re getting better characteristic wine grapes from Nashik for an economical price,8217;8217; says Kapil Grover, the 49-year-old head of Grover Vineyards. The project will take the Grovers away from their traditional base at the foot of the Nandi Hills in Karnataka8212;where they have some 400 acres of French Vitis vinifera8212;to Nashik. The as-yet-unbranded line is scheduled to hit stores by September this year.

This latest project is Kapil8217;s baby. In fact, according to him, his father, Kanwal Grover, isn8217;t too hot on the son8217;s latest venture, 8216;8216;Dad hates the idea, but the thing is if people want to start to know wine but can8217;t bear the cost, they shouldn8217;t have to live with bad quality stuff,8217;8217; he says.

If you ever considered wine an appendage of the snob list, then you should meet Kapil Grover. The affable golf enthusiast doesn8217;t have a background in viticulture and admits he8217;s learned by tongue. The technical side of the family business is propped up by international winemaker Michel Rolland and French champagne house Veuve Clicquot. 8216;8216;There are a lot of companies in it just for the money,8217;8217; says Sanjay Menon, MD of Sansula Wines. 8216;8216;But wine doesn8217;t lie and to me there8217;s an honesty about the Grover business.8217;8217; Their business will get its first expert when Kapil8217;s daughter Karishma returns from her viticulture degree at UC Davis, California.

The patriarch of the family, Grover Sr, is well known as the pioneer of India8217;s winemaking business. 8216;8216;They are known for more passion than business,8217;8217; says Ashwin Deo, MD of Moet Hennessy India.

The easiest way to gauge the emotion behind the venture is to look at Kapil8217;s business plan: while most Indian winemakers also distribute foreign wines, the Grovers8217; focus has stayed on production, and while they are venturing into the low-end wine sector, Kapil says they8217;d never go so far down as to produce stuff like wine coolers. The senior Grover8217;s partiality for wine began during a series of trips to France in the 8217;50s and 8217;60s. 8216;8216;He used to tell me how after coming out of a late dinner meeting at 12.30 am, he8217;d feel merry but not drunk,8217;8217; remembers Kapil.

The family8217;s other businesses are a far cry from the high-hats that mark the wine sector8212;they import high precision equipment like liquid engine propellants for polar satellite launch vehicles. But back then, when French engineers visited India, Grover Sr was embarrassed by the fact that when it came to wine, India was a punishment for visitors. So in the early 8217;80s, when he read about winemaker Georges Vesselle, Grover wrote to Vesselle asking him to come to India.

8216;8216;At one point, Georges said dad should go see him whenever he8217;s in France,8217;8217; says Kapil. And that8217;s exactly what Kapil8217;s father did. On his next trip, Grover Sr went to Bouzy in the Champagne region. The two men, born five days apart, topped off a bottle of pinot noir Bouzy Rouge 19258212;the year of their births8212;and became fast friends. The rest of the tale about how Kapil took Vesselle on a 21-day reconnaissance tour through 21 places across the country to find the right spot to plant their first crop is a part of Indian wine history. They eventually eschewed the obvious choice of Nashik in favour of Karnataka and have remained there ever since.

Today, Grover is one of perhaps two the other being Chateau Indage Indian companies that enjoys international acceptance. They began exporting in 1999 to the UK with 30,000 bottles; in 2003 a distributor in France requested 50,000 bottles, today more than 1,80,000 bottles of Grover products are sold in France, at retail spaces that include icons like Gallerie Lafayette. If they cared to, the Grovers could sell referigerators to the eskimos.