JOIN USThe Western influence on us is not recent and has been part of our lives from the colonial age. One such Western culture, which was embedded in us by the Persians and is now gaining popularity, is viticulture – the science, study, and production of grapes.
While French terms like Bonjour, Bon appetite and au revoir have been a part of our vocabulary for the longest time now, the French wine-making culture has been in existence in India from the Vedic era! Nevertheless, it is the present brunch lifestyle in metropolitan cities that are booming the Indian wine industry and Karnataka stands second, next to Maharashtra, in wine production. With desired tropical wetlands and semi-arid climatic regions, Karnataka has 17 licensed and functioning wineries in designated vineyards of over 2,000 acres. A drive on the Mysuru–Bengaluru highway will showcase the most popular of these wineries, which are promoting local farmers and attracting tourists.
Grape cultivation
While a handful of noted brands own acres of vineyards in Bengaluru and are involved in viticulture, the vineyards in other parts of the State, mainly in North Karnataka, work on contract basis with local farmers and are helping them earn a stable living. “We have around 180 acres of vineyard that are harvested by local farmers. The production is growing exponentially each year, which has helped the farmers invariably,” explains Vinod Gurradi, the managing director of Elite Vintage Winery in Bagalkot. The Heritage Winery in Channapatna too works with grape farmers on contract basis, and as Gorakh Gaikwad, assistant vice president of Sula Vineyards — Karnataka operations, explains, “While table grape farmers have to keep a regular track on the market to know the price for their yield, the price remains constant and grows exponentially in grape cultivation for winemaking. This sure is a boost to the grape farmers working with wineries.”
Wineries in Vijayapura and Bidar too are promoting grape farming in the region extensively. This has helped the farmers and resulted in increased wine production in the State. Manjunath, an employee at Nisarga Vineyard in Vijayapura, says, “There are growers who approach us each year and we work out a price and help them grow quality grapes for winemaking.”
The four major wine grape varieties that are popularly grown in the State are Shiraz, Chenin Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel. Nevertheless, the wineries in the State are experimenting with over 10 varieties of wine grapes.
Wine tourism
Chartreuse plants looking towards the sky and spread across acres of land, huge wine processing Italian machines reaching the roofs of processing units, the wine connoisseur’s corner in the buffet area, wine merchandise shops. This is the outlook of Heritage Winery in Gangeddoddi village of Channapatna. “Wine consumption in Karnataka is increasing yearly,” says Gorakh Gaikwad. While quality wines of India are produced here, they also offer wine education that includes the study of wine-making and imparts the art of wine tasting.
A single grape plant produces approximately three to four kg of grapes. However, it depends on the variety of grape plants clarifies Melbourne, a wine tour guide at Heritage Winery. Picked yield from the vineyards is taken to the processing unit and shifted to pneumatic balloon press machine, where the grapes are crushed and squeezed between a cylindrical wall and the balloon to produce juice. “The grapes have to be crushed for red wine and squeezed (to exclude the peel) to make white wine,” explains Melbourne. The crushed or squeezed juice is then transferred to another processor, maintained at a controlled temperature, where yeast is added to convert sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The next step is to blend the fermented wine and he explains, “A previous batch of wine is added to the blender with the new wine to get the consistency of taste. It helps blend the taste of varied grapes grown under different soil and climatic conditions.”
The blended wine is then transferred to an insulated tank where the inner temperature is maintained at -4° Celsius, freezing the yeast. “The frozen yeast is then filtered with 0.5-micron sheets to produce clear wine,” he explains. After this, the wine goes through the ageing process. While these form the basis of wine-making, the process might differ slightly depending on the variety of wine produced.
See, swirl, sniff and sip from the basics of wine tasting and they vary with each variety of wine. While tasting gives the complete picture of a wine, seeing and sniffing too talks great qualities of a wine. Red wines aged for long are darker in colour and light wines aged for long get lighter. The swirl adds to the taste too as it releases the right amount of gases. Also, a lot of etiquette goes behind holding a wine glass. The term ‘wine and dine’ sounds classy, but it demands a certain dining etiquette. These etiquettes can be learnt easily through wine tours organised by the wineries.
The Karnataka Wine Board is playing a major part in embedding wine culture in the State as it organises wine festivals in various districts; the recent one being The International Wine Festival in Belagavi. However, wine tourism is yet to catch up in interior parts of the State, as Survesh, a technician at Karnataka Wine Board explains, “From Bengaluru, many tourists who travel on the highway take part in the wine tours. But in the interior parts of the State, where tourism takes a backstage, the concept of wine tour is yet to catch up. But we are building awareness among people on wine culture through various wine festivals in these interior districts and it is sure to catch up in near future.”
Nevertheless, the wineries around Bengaluru are attracting people for the wine tours around the year. A walk in the vineyard, a talk with the winemakers at the processing units, a sip of the best-tasting wine and stomp on the wine grapes — this is the outline of wine tour offered by the wineries in the State, mostly surrounding Bengaluru and Ramanagara areas. The tourists can be a part of these educative and fun-filled tours around the year and wine stomping and tasting steals the limelight of the tour.