Tell us about your journey from your growing up days to becoming the CEO of Sula Vineyards?
I was born and raised in Mumbai. After graduating with a BA in Economics and an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management from Stanford University in 1990, I worked for two years at Oracle Corp in Silicon Valley. I was the youngest manager in Oracle’s finance division. In 1992, I decided I had enough of the corporate world and quit my job. After backpacking around the world for a year, I returned to India and decided to live the rural life. I started farming mangoes at our family land in Nashik, and then tried my hand at various crops like roses, teakwood and table grapes.
What were the challenges initially when you were setting up everything two decades ago, when wine and wine tourism was unheard of in the country?
In 1996, I had an epiphany when I realised that Nashik had the perfect climate for growing vines but nobody had done it yet. I decided to establish Sula Vineyards, Nashik’s first winery, in 1999, with help from my friend and distinguished Californian winemaker Kerry Damskey. It was a historic move and today Nashik is considered India’s “wine capital”. Sula Vineyards is globally renowned as India’s premier quality wine producer. We have been pioneers ever since, introducing for the first-time varietals such as Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Zinfandel and Riesling. We brought in techniques such as refrigerated winemaking, which significantly raised the quality of Indian wine.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 2020-Ausgabe von RITZ.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der February 2020-Ausgabe von RITZ.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
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