Grover Zampa Vineyards Celebrates 25 years

Planned in September to coincide with the current season, the celebrations kick off in the NCR region, with a celebratory event partnered with the Leela Ambience in Gurgaon on October 25. This will be followed by similar events in Bangalore and Mumbai.

Kanwal Grover who died in July 2011, a week before turning 86, founded the company in 1988 though the first vintage released was only 1992 was a true pioneer. Although it was Sham Chougule who is often considered a pioneer of the Indian industry since he started selling Indian’s first sparkling wine- Marquis de Pompadour in the late 1980’s, Late Mr Kanwal Grover had started experimenting with the soil and grapes in different parts of India since 1981 before choosing Bangalore as the best possible area for grape cultivation at the time. He was at the helm of affairs for several years before giving charge to his son Kapil Grover.

Merger with Zampa

It was a Breaking New Story when delWine had announced the possible merger of Grover Vineyards with Zampa in 2011 when the talks had reached a final-negotiations stage (the news had been withheld from publishing earlier to avoid fuelling of any speculation earlier.

The two merged in 2012 and today the company is Grover Zampa Vineyards.

Vijay Amritraj Reserve Collection

Grover Zampa achieved a feather in their cap when the Indian Tennis Ace Vijay Amritraj decided to introduce a wine under his name and chose them as the partner. Two variants of the label were introduced at Wimbledon in 2014.

It has proved a good partnership with the wines acknowledged internationally for their high quality as evidenced from several records and medals in their pocket.

Life-time Achievement Award

Last year Kapil Grover received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the delWine Excellence Awards night at Pullman Aerocity, New Delhi for his continued service to the wine industry. He also has had the longest innings at the crease and is still not out. It would be years before he retires and take to full time playing his favourite sports –golf, and hand over the reins to his daughter Karishma Grover who is also the winemaker.

Converting Wine into Money

Kapil Grover, Director of Grover Zampa Vineyards is happy but also philosophical about the journey. As delWine caught up with him travelling from Mumbai to Jaipur, he said, ‘the journey so far has been interesting and fun. But I won’t say happy all the times. We have had our ups and downs, heartaches and headaches. I would be lying if I said it has been easy journey or a money-making one. It’s the passion that has been driving us so far. As I said at the delWine Excellence Awards last year, Jesus Christ miraculously created wine from water a couple of thousand years ago. I hope it won’t take that long for us to convert wine into money!’ Kapil promised to talk more about the journey  when he visits Delhi next week for celebrating 25 Years.  

Celebrating 25 Years at Leela Gurgaon

The company has the distinction of winning the maximum number of medals at the international wine competitions and is miles ahead of the nearest competitor-be it Sula or Fratelli. But for now, he has to get ready to join the Pan India celebrations that were planned last month to coincide with the  season and the first one planned for October 24 at Hotel Leela Ambience, Gurgaon. Hopefully, he will be present to interact with the senior officials of the trade and other invitees.

The evening will start at6:30 pm, with a Vertical Tasting of the flagship red wine La Reserve which over the years had the title of ‘Best Indian Red Wine’ by experts including Jancis Robinson and Steven Spurrier. It was highly praised by Robert Joseph at IFE India 2006.

Though the vintages to be presented are not indicated yet, it would be naturally later than 1997 when the first vintage was made but not released and was kept in a cellar. (The 1997 vintage was poured at a Delhi Wine Club Dinner at Olive Bar and Restaurant where the bottles that were not corked, were delightfully delicious).

This will be followed by a food and wine pairing from 7:30 to 8:00 pm (reservations required). There will be a separate corner where many of their award winning wines will be available for tasting.

The event will be repeated at least in Mumbai and Bangalore at a later date.

The Grover Vineyards ship (now merged with Zampa) has been through a few ups and downs but seems to have steadied now with continued quality improvements and increased offerings, not the least of them being the release of Insignia Magnum priced at Rs. 5,000 in Bangalore last year. The first batch of 300 magnums has been reportedly sold out with 100 allotted to their Singapore partner Ravi Viswanathan.

Last year they jump started a new chapter of their history by taking on board the illustrious French  Labruyere Family, wine producers since 1850 and trail blazers in their own right by being the first Burgundian owners to invest in Bordeaux.

We wish the pioneering Grover Zampa Vineyards our best and look forward to be a part of the celebrations and hope there are many more to come.

For an earlier related Article, visit:
La Revamp of La Reserve by Grover Zampa

Subhash Arora

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