First Crush

8216;8216;Some years from now, if we meet again, you8217;ll remember what I8217;m going to tell you. The young wine lobby in Maharashtra will soon replace the sugar lobby,8217;8217; says Birari, co-owner of SSR Wine Engineers and Consultants, whose first product, Sun Sura, is slated to hit the market in March next year. The first batch 8216;8216;will be sent to Balasaheb for his blessings8217;8217;.

Just this once, a politician doesn8217;t seem to be talking through his hat. For, if you swing a leg over a decent bike and potter around in Maharashtra8217;s grape-growing region that lies in a perfect arc from Nashik to Pune, the evidence is there, both to see and quaff.

In the last two years, over 20 wineries have sprung up in the sun-drenched districts, where the muted green of the vineyards blends with the Van Gogh yellow of the surrounding dry grass and the faded brown of the Sahyadris.

February 2004 saw 11 of them enter their first crushing season and today, over 1,500 acres of land in the state are reserved for vineyards. The wines range from Rs 250 to Rs 480.

The trigger8212;the state8217;s move to accord winemaking the status of a food processing industry, exemption of excise and a massive chop in sales tax8212;makes for dry copy. But the new winemakers are, without doubt, an entertaining lot.

You would be too if you had a winery on the ground floor of your two-storeyed house in the middle of a 20-acre vineyard. Thirty-six-year-old college dropout Vishwas More8217;s Sailo Wines in Pimpalgaon, accessed by Rajdoot-175-only roads, was the first of the new wineries. Right there in his own home. 8216;8216;I had no other option. I grew up hearing about wine all the time.8217;8217;

Across the massive room, punctuated by tall, cylindrical tanks, a calm 70-year-old watches with mute pride as his son displays his wines8212;the dry Mark Antony and fruity Et tu Brutus, both reds. 8216;8216;Nana chose the name Sailo. That8217;s his pet name for Sayli, my daughter,8217;8217; says More, pouring out more of the oakey-flavoured Mark Antony.

Madhavrao Khanderao More is a teetotaller, but this former Shetkari Sanghatna leader knows his wines. Back in the late 8217;80s when enterprise was a four-letter word, Madhavrao, a highly respected grape farmer, started the ill-fated Pimpane Cooperative, India8217;s first sparkling wine plant, which fell prey to bureaucratic bull-headedness and political sabotage.

But two years ago he knew the moment had come. 8216;8216;We8217;re grape farmers. Our region has the maximum number of sunlight hours throughout the year and a cool climate. What more does it take to make good wine?8217;8217; says Madhavrao. 8216;8216;In my time, you had to beg Delhi for a licence, now one just goes to the collector. If we farmers keep it small and keep the politicians out, winemaking will be the hydrogen bomb of Maharashtra8217;s economy.8217;8217;

More has indeed kept it small8212;his wife and children help out with the labelling of the bottles and whenever there is a need for extra manpower, workers from his vineyard come over. But in a government-established wine park in Vinchur, a lesuirely hour8217;s ride from Nashik, someone else is going all out.

8216;8216;Chenin Blanc?8217;8217; guesses Kishore Holkar, grape farmer and director of the about 30-strong Sankalp Wineries, as he sips winemaker MP Sharma8217;s newly-prepared drink in the winery8217;s lounge. 8216;8216;No, isn8217;t this your dessert wine? Too sweet to be Chenin,8217;8217; says the CEO, 44-year-old Sadashiv Nathe. Their firm makes Vinsura Chenin Blanc, Zinfandel and Rose.

A trip to France in 1997 in search of new business opportunities saw them veer towards wine. 8216;8216;When we went to France, we looked at cheese, perfume and wine, but ultimately decided on the latter,8217;8217; says Nathe, who had his first sip at a Moet 038; Chandon winery and still has it 8216;8216;very occasionally8217;8217;.

8216;8216;In France, we used to get bottles as presents at the various wineries we visited. We didn8217;t prefer it much and gifted it to other French acquaintances who were delighted,8217;8217; says Holkar. 8216;8216;It is only now that I know why. That culture will take a long time coming here, but we8217;ve had a good start.8217;8217;

Holkar and Nathe, whose Vinsura is being marketed in Goa, Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra, aren8217;t fazed by the country8217;s negligible per capita consumption8212;below 5 ml per annum compared to around 300 litres in the West. 8216;8216;High society is having it, soon it8217;ll percolate. We8217;ll also be launching herbal wines next year,8217;8217; says Holkar.

From grape farming to winemaking was a logical progression for Nathe and Holkar. But what is a former building contractor like Pandurang Lamkhane doing in a vineyard in Solapur?

8216;8216;Once the government announced the new policy, I decided to get into winemaking. We have a lot of ancestral land,8217;8217; says Mohini Wineries8217; Lamkhane, 46, who, as he himself admits, has no prior experience in either winemaking or growing grapes. 8216;8216;But I8217;ve got a French winemaker.8217;8217;

Lamkhane first visited Italy early this year in search of a winemaker. When that didn8217;t work out, he hopped across to Cognac, France, where he met Frederic Dezauzier, 48, who has worked 8216;8216;long years in the spirit industry in Singapore8217;8217;.

8216;8216;Frederic handles everything here. Our wines, Uttara, Swati, Rohini and Chitra should be out in a fortnight. Here, speak to him,8217;8217; suggests Lamkhane whose winery employs about 20 people.

Dezauzier, who shuttles between Cognac and Solapur every three months, believes wines shouldn8217;t be compared or duplicated. 8216;8216;I want to make authentic Indian wine.8217;8217;

Mechanical engineer Rajesh Jadhav too is an outsider to the profession. When Dadasaheb Patil, a grape farmer in Bhilwad, near Nashik, decided to try his hand at wine two years ago, he gave complete charge to his two sons, and to Jadhav and his brother8212;both directors at Rajdheer Wines. The result is Aurum Chenin Blanc and Le Vino.

8216;8216;Le Vino red wine is a combination of Hindi and Italian. Le is Hindi for take and Vino is wine in Italian,8217;8217; says Jadhav, who is excited about bagging the company8217;s first export order to the UK. 8216;8216;Indian wines are in demand in Indian restaurants in England. The collector himself congratulated me,8217;8217; says the wiry 26-year-old.

The story doesn8217;t end with men like Jadhav, More, Lamkhane and Nathe. These folks are already in business. But in Nashik, Sangli, Baramati and Ahmednagar, both farmers and entrepreneurs, novices and the well-prepared are drawing up their plans.

To get an idea of the frenzy at Ground Zero, one just has to spend a day with Madhavrao, whose home is often deluged by farmers seeking guidance on winemaking.

Or better still, catch winemaker Sharma deliver a winemaking 101 to enthusiastic callers who buzz him on his cellphone every once in a while. 8216;8216;Now, there are three popular varieties. Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, I said C-h-e-n-i-n8230;

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