Sula Vineyards, Nasik
I had a chance to visit Sula Vineyards thanks to a cousin's location wedding and was suitably impressed with the locale. I've been to the Chaddsford Winery in Pennsylvania, USA a few years ago with a full tour so I was looking forward to this, especially since India isn't really known for producing wine.
Opening with the fact that India is a "new world" wine country, our tour guide took us around the Sula Vineyard production facility, from the crushers to the fermentation tanks. The process seemed pretty similar to what I remember although this time around the tour guide had to deal with some gruelling questions on the quality of the wine and how it is maintained in India. I don't think many were really satisfied with his answer, but I'll tell you this, the vineyard is beautiful to be in.
While harvesting season is mostly in and around April, we had to deal with empty crushers and no bottling, but the weather on the other hand is probably a lot better this time of the year. After the tour, we stopped by the tasting room and the brownie just had to be tried. Sadly I was a bit disappointed - it was more a chocolate cake than a brownie, and looked way better than it tasted. However the overall atmosphere and feel weren't dampened much.
The rest of the team nearby offered to try the house red wine of Sula - the Dindori Shiraz - which the tour guide raved about. I wasn't fantastically impressed, in the sense, it didn't give me the "Wow, that is a great wine" feeling, but it was a good wine - smooth and tasted good. There was a hint of berry as promised.
Overall, you should visit this place once, especially if you are in India. The tour and area seemed quite popular, with people swarming in over the weekend, with tons of little kids, much to our surprise. I'll tell you this though, it makes a great wedding location.
