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 ‘The wine has been made from 100% Cabernet grapes bought and brought from a vineyard in Solapur, says Vishal who has been working with Rajesh Rasal as his winemaker and has crushed them at the Oakwood Winery in Shrirampur in Distt Ahmednagar. The 5 year old winery has been already making wine for others like Myra in Bangalore and Soul Tree in England. ‘I wanted to work with a winery which is geared to make wine for third parties and a wine which has its own personality- clean fruit-forward, easy drinking and not too expensive,’ he adds.
So why did he want to get into marketing Indian wines? ‘For the same reason that I sell imported wines-passion, he says. ‘I wanted to add an Indian wine to my portfolio and offer to the restaurateurs who are already comfortable with my quality fine wines. I wanted to give them an additional choice of an Indian wine.’ He plans to continue with Cabernet Sauvignon as the only red wine but will soon add a white wine under the same label.
Aware that only a couple of wine labels will not be able to compete with other Indian wines in the market, he says very nonchalantly, ‘I am not interested in the number game and compete in the market. I know I won’t be able to make much money with the small number I have in mind during the next couple of years (2000-3000cases). But I definitely wanted to offer an Indian wine as a choice. I am not going to shift my focus from my core business of imported wines.’
The bottle has an interesting, funky- look label-reminiscent of wine labels from South of France. Describing graphically, the process of wine making on a special hand-made paper on the front label that reads 14% alcohol and the back label rather cluttered with mostly trivia, he believes this will help engage with the newer and younger customers. He insists that the consumer is keen to learn about wine making process and education is anyway his one objective.
The screw-capped bottle he had kept for cooling at the Rick’s had become champagne-chilled and needed a lot of cajoling to wake up. But when it did, it was very quaffable, deep red colour, full bodied wine with clean nose and berry aromas. The flavours were very fruity, full of dark fruit, fresh and with good persistence in the back end with ripe tannins. The length was medium-not bad at all for a first attempt. Best of all it was SWAAD; I polished off more than 2 glasses while chatting!
Vishal, who is on the right tracks of staying away from too much oak, says he would have preferred it to be totally stainless steel tank aged, but was not happy with the finish. So they tried blending with wine that had  been ageing in new French barriques and experimented with blending in different proportion of oaked wine with that in the stainless steel tanks. The hit and trial continued till they managed to get what both he and Rajesh thought to be perfect wine with oak adding slightly to the complexity but playing a small role in the symphony.
It is quite unique in that Rajesh has never made wine in that style before, says Vishal. Even the vineyard, from which the grapes were harvested, has been reserved exclusively for him now. He is also very excited about the current 2016 vintage for which he has been present at the winery during the crush and feels he will be able to even better the 2015 vintage, which he should have no difficulty to sell, especially as good quality Cabernet Sauvignon are not easy to find in Nashik at such prices.
The label is very appealing, attractive and engaging, and will make you look again at the bottle in a shelf even though it is not for retail initially. The message the label conveys, is very appropriate though I wish he could have somehow printed ‘in moderation’ on the front. This might have even helped shut up some ignorant bureaucrats by giving the message of ‘The Daily Dose in moderation’ for health; we already know ‘consumption of liquor is injurious to health’.
The Wine Park is not going to shake up the domestic wine market but Vishal’s move might encourage a few other importers who have been waiting on the fence to take a plunge. It might even be a ray of hope for the domestic producers on the fringe and may convey the message to bring out wines of quality and personality and at affordable price. It will also offer the consumer another choice of wine.
Jai Ho to The Daily Dose of red wine in moderation!
Subhash Arora |