Like most other wineries in Nashik Sula is At the fag end of the harvest with the last lots of Chenin and Cabernet being the varietals coming out during this unique vintage, a first in the short history of Nashik viticulture, reports Subhash Arora.

Rajeev Samant is a happy man these days, more sprightly than ever. Not only is he expecting 15% more yield this harvest, the quality of fruit is better than expected, with the California- like weather pattern faced for the first time.

'It has been a unique vintage in that the cold was unprecedented in Nashik for a month with the temperature dropping to 3.5° C, the lowest in 30 years. But then the hot weather came back cutting down the available harvest cycle from the normal 5-6 weeks to around 3-4 weeks.'

'Quality is looking very uniform with 15% higher crop than estimated before veraison. The acid has been excellent in the whites. We had harvested the Sauvignon Blanc in late January-early February while the harvesting for Chenin started in early March.'

Leaf roll Virus

What happened to the leaf roll virus which had created such a panic last year? I interjected. 'I had always maintained that too much was being made out of it. This is a virus as common in vineyards as the virus in a human cold. It affects only the economics of grape cultivation and does not affect the whole vineyard,' said Rajeev.

Viognier and Whites

'What is very exciting for us is that the Viognier which we started in a small way last year with 500kg. is expressing itself very nicely, especially in the Dindori and Bhujbal farm', the latter being a contract farm directly and completely under Sula's charge, as Rajeev explained to DelWine during a chat in Mumbai last week.

The Sauvignon Blanc has finished fermentation and will be ready soon. Chenin Blanc is undergoing the fermentation right now.

Double Crop for the Whites

Last year, Sula had harvested Sauvignon Blanc around Christmas. So did they try this time? 'No,' says Rajeev. 'That was an experiment we tried to find out if we can get a yearly double crop. We know now that technically it is possible but whether we want to do it or not is another matter. We have decided against the idea- also echoed by their Australian viticulturist consultant, Steve Brunato.

It is generally accepted that the life of the vine decreases without dormancy and also due to double cropping, which also reduces the quality. Many viticulture experts claim that the life of such vines is 15-20 years compared to some vineyards in Europe where the vines live longer than 50 years. 'Jury is out on that one in Nashik,' says the optimistic Samant. 'We have had our vines for the last 11 years and we are getting great quality of fruit. We shall just wait and see what happens over the next few years. But we are pretty happy about our quality right now.'

According to most international experts, vines of Sula's age should normally be in their prime now, anyway.

Red, Red Wine

Red wines are the ones which are creating some headaches for Sula and other wineries as well this year due to the earlier bitter cold and the shorter harvest period. The fruit has had to be left longer on the vine as the harvest was delayed due to the unexpected fall in temperature in February and now there has been a rush with the need to harvest at a quicker pace due to the temperature rise, resulting in a shortage of tank space. Earlier 5-6 weeks were available for the tanks for fermentation; a period cut short to 3-4 weeks this vintage.

This does not faze their Californian wine consultant Kerry Damskey who was in India for two weeks with the viticulturists at Sula to watch over the red grape harvest, before leaving for his home in Sonoma last Friday. 'Making white wine is relatively simple and pretty stable at Sula. On the other hand reds are where the picking of grapes, fermentation, making wine in the cellar, blending are very important,' he says.

'This was a unique vintage. The second pruning was done later this year, after the last year's early pruning. The unexpected chill was followed by hot weather. This sort of climate change happens in California all the time but needs some jugglery with the tanks and equipment to stagger the fermentation, blending some grapes before fermentation and a few techniques which the team at Nashik was never exposed to before.'

Kerry is not very happy with the Merlot crop a total of around 100 acres of which is grown in their vineyards as well as the contracted ones, and which is hard to grow in this region. He does not hide his disappointment but 'Viognier is where I am very excited. A little bit of Riesling, the late variety is also what we are working with,' says Kerry. He is also quite satisfied with the quality of Grenache which is being fermented at present with Shiraz 'as the quantity is too small to make much impact right now,' he says. Cabernet is the only red varietal left to harvest.

He is also very upbeat on Malbec, a sentiment echoed by Rajeev who says, 'in the years to come we shall have this varietal flourish in Nashik which is proving to be a good area for it.' 'You will see a more complex flavour profile,' he adds with a twinkle in his eyes.

Reds to get hot

With the red grape left on the vines for a longer period, the grapes are expected to be riper. Not only will the wine be more fruit -forward, the alcohol level will be slightly higher too. 'I think the alcohol may touch 14% compared to the usual 13.5%. Our zinfandels will remain at that level too,' says Rajeev.

Production going up and up

About 4500 tons of grapes are being crushed by Sula this year, almost double that of last year when approximately 2250 tonnes were crushed, including those by the contracted farmers. This will be enough to produce the equivalent of 320,000 to 330,000 cases. Of course not all of this ends up in saleable wine. There are many wine bottles that may be stored by the producer for the next year.

To get the right perspective, Sula which will end up selling 175,000 cases in 2007-08 will have an opportunity to set the next year's target at around 300,000 cases.

The increas
Sula goes more Rede in production this year comes primarily from the red variety. The average increase in the red grape production is 50% with Shiraz going up by 150% according to Rajeev. This will also help increase the production of their top-end Dindori from 4000 cases to 7000 this year.

Another interesting feature due to better grape quality means there would be more of them used in the premium brands and not in the low-end Madera which uses grapes found unsuitable for the higher end wines. Despite doubling of crops, Rajeev does not expect any increase in the production of Madera during this vintage.

And what is the story on Satori red with which made Sula millions by importing the Merlot from Chile in bulk and bottling it in Nashik. With the continuous increase in the red grape production, already about half the bottle of each red contains indigenously grown grapes. By next year, Satori will be full Indian blooded, with a good amount of Malbec and Grenache in the blend, he assures me.

Increase in acreage

This year 2500 new acres have been planted in Nashik which includes 750 acres by Sula. The new acreage will start giving wine in 2011, according to Rajeev. 'This will give Nashik extra 700,000 cases of wines,'

India's consumption is expected to grow to 17 million liters in that year.

Sula and the gang at Nashik are gearing up to reap the benefits of increasing wine consumption in India where the opportunities for the imported variety are being continually gagged by the government.

All such opportunities and expansion plans notwithstanding, Kerry comes back on May 5th for 10 days to decide on the blending of the fermented juice and give the finishing touches to the harvest of '08.

Subhash Arora