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Sula set to become No1 winery in Asia
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Tuesday, 01 March, 2005, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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P N V NAIR, Mumbai
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The Indian wine has finally arrived with Nashik emerging as the wine destination. Food and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, who visited the district recently, has described Nashik as the Napa Valley of India. At Sula, India's leading premium wine company, he declared open the Tasting facility for the public, the first of its kind in the country. Pawar was very much impressed with the state-of-the-art winery facing the 35-acre vineyards that roll down to the picturesque Gangapur lake in the distance. The winery was celebrating the harvest festival.
According to Rajeev Samant, the Stanford-trained engineer who chucked his cushy job with Oracle at the Silicon Valley to start wine grape cultivation in 1997, Nashik has the best climate required to make wine. Samant's Sula brand of wines that hit the market in 2000 has already become an international brand selling about 20,000 cases in the US, Italy and France. Sula will go to the UK and Singapore soon. By the year 2010, Sula will be the No1 winery in Asia.
Talking to Food & Beverage News, Samant said Sula (named after his mother Sulabha and Surya, the Sun god), had pioneered the cultivation of wine-making varieties of grapes like Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Zinfandel from France and California. He had acquired 300 acres of land in an area called Dindori. " We have planted 100 acres, of which 35 acres are already yielding. We will plant the rest of the land over the next two years."
Besides the foreign grape varieties which he cultivates in his own farm, the bottles and oak barrels come from France, yeast from Australia, wire holders from Spain, corks from Portugal and gold foils from Luxumberg. Samant believes they are the key ingredients that make his products great. Again one of the wine-makers at Sula is a French lady, Valerie Aigron. And getting accepted in California, France and Italy means a lot for him.
According to Samant, there are at least 20 aspects to wine-making and one has to pay attention to all, right down to packaging and labels.
In November 2002, Wine Spectator, the world's No1 wine magazine did a five-page feature on Sula, a proud first for an Indian winery. Ever since, there was no looking back. State-of-the-art machinery, coupled with environmentally proactive measures and a dedicated wine-making team, help Sula produce quality wines.
The company markets Sula Brut and Sula Seco (among sparkling wines), Sula Sauvignon Blanc, Sula Chenin Blanc, Pacifia and Madera White (white wines), Sula Blush Zindafel and Madera Rose (blush wines), Sula Cabernet Shiraz, Satori and Madera Red (red wines). Sula wines are sold in some finest hotels and restaurants in the country. Priced between Rs 350 and Rs 550 for a 750 ml bottle, Sula wines are cheaper compared to international brands available in the country. Wines are expensive because of heavy taxes. The company also imports and distributes finest wines from leading producers in the world, including BRL Hardy of Australia and Taylor's Port.
In 2003-04, Sula produced 25,000 cases of wine while another 15,000 cases were imported and sold in the country. In 2004-05, production is expected to be around 70,000 cases and for 2005-06, the company projects 90,000 cases. Sula crushed 700 tonnes of grapes in 2004, up from 350 tonnes in 2003. In 2005, the target is 1,000 tonnes.
In terms of sales, Sula is No 2 in the country after Chauteau, a winery based in Naragaon, also in Maharashtra. The company is expecting a turnover of Rs 19 crores this year (2004-05), from Rs11 crore last year.
Sula wines are available in almost all major metros like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Calcutta and mini metros like Pune, Nashik, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Pondicherry, Panaji and Jaipur. They will be available in Hyderabad shortly.
Valerie Aigron, the French wine-maker who is with Sula for the past one year, said Nashik was very good for wine-making because of good soil and cooler climate, great conditions for grape cultivation. Sula wine, she said, was a new world wine, qualitywise it could be compared with international brands. While French wines are aged for1 to 50 years, Sula wines are aged for two to three years.
Kerry Damesky, the wine-maker from California who helped Samant to set up the project, said Sula wines had been well-received in the US, where the company was represented by two distributors covering all the 50 states.
Adrian Pinto, Head, Sales & Marketing, who was a part of the growth of the company in about five years, said Sula was a success story because of quality, educating the wine market and value for money - great quality for a good price. He also attributed the great success to team work and better and different strategies adopted by the company.
Asked about the competition, Pinto said, " We have no competition. The growth of the brand speaks for itself," he said. Pinto's optimism fully concurs with Samant's dream of converting India into a wine-consuming nation.
Sula Vineyards celebrated the harvest season with a crush party at its spanking new Tasting Room, designed by Californian architects. Guests were greeted local style with trumpets, painted bulls, and a glass of Sula Brut bubbly. Sula's wines flowed freely throughout the day, the fruity blush Zinfandel being the festive favourite.
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