Started in 2008, Sulafest quickly became one of the most popular wine and music festivals in India, with many successful international bands chipping in along with the Indian chart toppers like Shankar Mahadevan, Lucky Ali and Kailash Kher. The usual 2-day festival was even extended to 3 days for its 10th anniversary in 2017 when a record estimated 16000-18000 people attended the fest.

Thirteen was perhaps the unlucky number for SulaFest. After 13 annual events (2008-2020), it fell prey to Covid-19. No events could be organised for 2 years and even the Wine Tourism, which had gotten a tremendous boost from the 13 fests, went Southwards. While the hard core loyalists kept on hoping it would be revived soon, Sula has finally shown the red flag after the 2020 event.

Also Read: Walking in the Clouds at The Source at Sula Vineyards

In a communication with Subhash Arora, Rajeev Samant said that curtains have gone down finally for SulaFest. Giving the reasons he said, ‘Subhash, we have no plans to revive Sulafest at this time. It was a great event but it had its time. These days, given the surge of genuine wine lovers and wine tourists thronging our vineyards, it becomes extremely difficult to carve out this festival on one of the busiest weekends of the year.’

Also Read: Sula: Wine Tourism Limping back in Nashik from July 10

‘We also struggled with permissions, usually getting them only in the last few days just before the festival even though our planning and investment had to begin one year in advance. Finally, we all collectively took the call of no more SulaFest.’

He has good news for genuine music and wine lovers though, and says, ‘you should know that our vineyards are now a music destination throughout the year. We have live bands performing for our guests on around 30 weekends of the year! That’s a little known fact. So we continue to love our music, to be patrons of good live music. But we have gently stepped back from the big Tamasha.

Also Read: SulaFest 2019: Record Crowd for a single Day on Sunday

Wine Tourism on the Move

Curtain has finally come down for SulaFest but wine tourism is speeding ahead- as Sula appears to understand its full importance for branding and business growth. There were around 300,000 visitors last year though sans SulaFest about 350,000 are expected to travel to the winery in 2023-24 as wine tourists. The profile of visitors has certainly improved, according to Monit Dhavale, Senior Vice President-  Hospitality, who started looking after the Tasting Room over a decade ago and heads all the hospitality activities including the two Resorts- The Source and Beyond.

Also Read: SulaFest 2017: Smooth and Seamless Show for Music Lovers

‘Pre-Covid era, the entrance was free-for-all so many people walked in just to take pictures or even take a walk around the vineyard without even tasting wines. Now we have kept a cover charge of Rs. 600 over the weekdays, which is good for a winery visit and Tasting of 6 wines that costs Rs. 600. Weekend charges are higher at Rs. 1000. This can be used towards wine purchase, wine consumption or wine and food in Rasa Restaurant which serves Indian and Italian dishes curated by a consulting Italian chef,’ he explains.

Also Read: SulaFest ready to Rock n Roll for Tenth Year

When asked about the key factors in their success when others have still been planning to promote wine tourism or limping at a slow pace, Monit says, ‘actually, Covid helped us recover faster because we have a lot of open space. Spread over 4 acres, our 67-room ‘The Source’ is spread in 7 different buildings and one enjoys a lot of open space.’ Ditto for our Beyond which has more options than before.’ It is interesting that despite higher room tariffs on week-ends the 104 rooms are all sold out over the weekends, according to him.

Also Read: Wine Tourism: Sula leads the Way

The Tasting Rooms have undergone  expansion. The iconic balcony where it all started can accommodate 300 people at a time, according to Monit. ‘Our tasting Room is one of the most visited Tasting Room in the world and more people taste their first wine here than any other place in India, if not the world. Factors like several photo-ops and selfie spots with 8 large bottles of 15-25 feet height also help,’ he says.

Also Read: Sulafest-Mini Woodstock in Nashik

Of course, better air connectivity has seen many additional visitors, with a change in the geographical profile. Nashik is now connected with 29 different cities, 5 of them with no stop-overs; Goa, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Nagpur and Indore. Delhi used to be connected directly to Nashik through Spice Jet which has been in financial trouble. But it is expected that direct flights will restart from next month.

Rajeev Samant, CEO and Founder of Sula Vineyards predicts a double digit growth for the company in the foreseeable future. It seems certain that wine tourism will maintain the same pace and with better revenues expected to be generated from each visitor, wine tourism will continue to perform even better.

Subhash Arora