William's Article: Really Old World Wines

I am sitting on a terrace overlooking a vineyard planted in Sauvignon Blanc, sipping the 2011 – crisp and herbaceous, everything in balance, very enjoyable.

Big deal, right?  Except I am in India, at Sula Vineyards, on the northern Deccan Plateau, in Maharashtra state, about 180 km northeast of Bombay.

This wine quickly became a hit with me traveling around India for the last three weeks. I was afraid I would have to drink absurdly marked-up foreign wines (The Spice Route, at the Hotel Imperial in New Delhi, has a list that’s big on Cote de Nuits and Pauillacs…or you could buy a Fiat); or gin; or worse still, beer. But Sula seems to be well distributed in good hotels and restaurants all over the country – and better-handled than a lot of other Indian wines I tried, which seem to have suffered the fate of hot and slow transport.

So, I couldn’t resist tracking it down on my last day here, driving from Mumbai to Nashik, through scenery that reminded me a little bit of Malibu canyons on fire. This is an amazing place. Sula has estate vineyards and buys from 200 or so contracted and supervised grape growers in this area. They are India’s biggest producer, and everyone from the Indian winemaking team I met here has spent time in Europe and/or California.

They follow a modified Southern Hemisphere harvesting schedule, picking the whites in late January after a ripening season of hot, dry days and nights that are up to 15 degrees centigrade cooler. Then they prune severely to prevent another growth, which would rot as the monsoons come in June. It all seems to work, with lively, nice Chenins and Sauvignon Blancs that make the point. They produce a Syrah too, more New World in style, that pairs well with a lot of Indian food.

I know wine production in India has ancient roots, and that there was some production in British times. But, in its modern iteration, the industry is in its infancy. Well, it is tasting to me like a happy childhood, with a long, exciting life to look forward to. Annual per capita consumption here gets cited in milliliters, but everyone in the business I talked to said wine drinking is growing in the 25-30 percent range per year. And, in tasting rooms and wine bars in the big cities, you see 20 and 30-somethings swirling and sniffing like anywhere else. I think it’s a scene to watch.

William McIlhenny is associate publisher of JamesSuckling.com. An international consultant based in Washington, D.C. As a U.S. diplomat, he held a number of assignments in Europe and Latin America.