Rounding Up With Vintage Wines. (Part VI)

As we left Renaissance waiving a goodbye to Mr. Aher, we hit the highway to reach for a winery set up 30 KMs away in Gitakunj, Taluka Niphad. We drove our ways through some upcoming civilizations, sugarcane plantations, villages, a cement factory and a defence camp. Vintage Wines was our last stop for the day before we call it a day in the wine-derland. They market their wines under the label of Reveilo wines. The winery has a holding capacity of 1.80 lac liters and owns 70-80 acre plantation area with no contract farming. The root stocks were first planted in 2000 and are all Italian by origin and they gave their first harvest in 2002. They use fog dispensers to stay clear of the humidity. Also, as we spoke to Mr. and Ms. Patil, directors of the company, they shared that with the wine tourism coming up so fast in the country, they wish to come up with a guest house and a wine bar next to the winery.

As we reached, Mr. Yogesh, who is also the assistant winemaker at the winery, welcomed us aboard. The winery was set up I we were guided our ways to the winery where we happened to see our first dual-compartment tanks. It’s a tank where you can store white and a red wine separately and hold them at two different temperatures. Further on we went to the damp dark cellar room which was washed and cleaned with no conflicting odours and had no signs of fungus or dirt. Next we saw a fully automatic bottling system that is also claimed to be the first in India in a winery. What impressed us was the storing area that was fully air-conditioned. This was the only winery during our visit where we saw the finished products under such condition. On further enquiry, Mr. Yogesh told us how the company owns a refrigerated truck that personally delivers its wines to the retailers and distributors under controlled temperatures. Without bias, the winery was so well structured and clean that it was hard to imagine that wines are actually produced there.

Moving on to the tasting table, we learned that the company has an Italian winemaker, who is very keen on learning Marathi and English language. They make Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Grillo in whites. 2009 Chardonnay will be their first vintage. In reds they offer Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese and Nero D’Avola.

As we started tasting, Gurjit and I both agreed to the fact that this Chenin Blanc was the cleanest one we had tasted so far in Nashik. To move on Chardonnay was presented in both forms, oaked and unoaked. Gurjit could not stop expressing his love for the barrel fermented Chardonnay. In the reds, my search stopped with the taste of their reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Thus, a great end to our journey. Revielo has also released a limited edition of its late harvest Chenin Blanc, which unfortunately we missed during the visit, but this is something India has been waiting for long.