Picture the late-afternoon scene: a glass of pale rosé in hand, I’m relaxing outdoors on an elegant terrace at a world-class vineyard resort. Bob Dylan is playing on the sound system as cosmopolitan visitors are having fun, taking selfies and tasting the estate’s wines. Below are rows of just-harvested Sauvignon Blanc vines, their leaves fluttering in the warm breeze. Beyond, on the distant horizon, I can glimpse a lake fringed by steep, jagged mountains. So where might I be? The Cape, California, New Zealand, maybe Canada?
The answer is none of the above. In fact, I’m at Sula Vineyards’ The Source resort in India’s premier wine region of Nashik – about 180km and four hours’ drive east of the bustling megacity that is Mumbai. The resort is aptly named because this is where Sula Vineyards began its dramatic ascent as a wine company, and also where it has just marked its 25th anniversary.
Certainly, there’s a lot for its pioneering founder and CEO Rajeev Samant to celebrate. Today, Sula is India’s biggest and best-known producer, with annual sales of one million cases and a 60%-plus share of all domestic wine sold above £5. How Sula has risen to dwarf the competition in India in just a quarter of a century is a remarkable story. ‘This is not an easy place to make and sell wine, with many producers only lasting three to five years,’ says Peter Csizmadia-Honigh, author of The Wines of India, a Concise Guide (The Press Publishing, 2015) and Senior Judge for Asia at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards. ‘When Sula first started, not even Samant would have predicted such extraordinary and long-term success.’
LIGHTBULB MOMENT
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 2024 من Decanter.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة August 2024 من Decanter.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
A Resource for the World? - Argentina is unique in the genetic diversity preserved in much of its vine material. With climate change and disease posing increasing threats worldwide, Catena Zapata winery is asking what lessons can be learned to protect vineyards within and beyond the nation's borders
Argentina is unique in the genetic diversity preserved in much of its vine material. With climate change and disease posing increasing threats worldwide, Catena Zapata winery is asking what lessons can be learned to protect vineyards within and beyond the nation’s borders
Great Cabernets of South America
Other varieties may hog the limelight across South America, but the world’s most popular grape for red wines has played a critical role in the continent's wine heritage. We trace Cabernet Sauvignon’s story here, and recommend 16 benchmark wines to try
PROVENCE by train and bike
With rail links to Paris, Nice, Marseilles and beyond, a vast network of cycle paths and quiet roads, and a plethora of historic wine estates, Provence is an ideal destination for an eco-friendly, car-free and carefree) holiday
IN THE MIX
These days most of the world’s vineyards are planted to just a single variety, but what happens when multiple varieties are planted, harvested and blended together?
Malvasia A BUYER'S GUIDE
If ever a grape was hard to pin down, it'd be Malvasia. Indeed it’s not even a single grape variety. In all of its many varied, and often completely unrelated guises, it has been the mainstay of popular wine styles across the centuries. Our expert takes a closer look...
RIBERA ADOPTS THE NEW OLD WAYS
It’s not so much a new direction for winemakers in Ribera del Duero, but a growing recognition that traditional methods and wine styles set aside by the previous generation can now provide a way ahead to revitalise the region
Roussanne around the world
Up for a challenge? For winemakers as much as wine drinkers, getting a handle on a mercurial grape such as Roussanne isn't easy. But wherever it's grown, when the balance is right, it truly repays the effort
Napa Cabernet 2021
There's a lot of excitement about this vintage, in which conditions were relatively calm and temperatures stable through summer. Ongoing drought reduced yields but intensified flavours, but it means quantities are down and you may need to act fast to secure top wines. Our Napa correspondent selects 60 great wines from more than 500 that he tasted, with many very high scores
10 reason to discover Uruguay
Squeezed between Brazil and Argentina on the Atlantic coast, Uruguay has mostly flown under the tourist radar - until now. Once dubbed 'the Switzerland of the Americas', it's a welcoming country that has much to offer the travelling wine lover
Leo Erazo
The old vines and special terroir of Itata, southern Chile, have beena source of inspiration for this intrepid winemaker. The 2023 fires were a setback, but his commitment to this ancient wine land is undiminished
