Sula Vineyards

In just a quarter of a century, Sula Vineyards in Nashik, in tropical central west India, has risen from being just the germ of an idea to selling more than a million cases every year – educating a generation of Indians about wine in the process

- JOHN STIMPFIG

Picture the late-afternoon scene: a glass of pale rosé in hand, I’m relaxing outdoors on an elegant terrace at a world-class vineyard resort. Bob Dylan is playing on the sound system as cosmopolitan visitors are having fun, taking selfies and tasting the estate’s wines. Below are rows of just-harvested Sauvignon Blanc vines, their leaves fluttering in the warm breeze. Beyond, on the distant horizon, I can glimpse a lake fringed by steep, jagged mountains. So where might I be? The Cape, California, New Zealand, maybe Canada?

The answer is none of the above. In fact, I’m at Sula Vineyards’ The Source resort in India’s premier wine region of Nashik – about 180km and four hours’ drive east of the bustling megacity that is Mumbai. The resort is aptly named because this is where Sula Vineyards began its dramatic ascent as a wine company, and also where it has just marked its 25th anniversary.

Certainly, there’s a lot for its pioneering founder and CEO Rajeev Samant to celebrate. Today, Sula is India’s biggest and best-known producer, with annual sales of one million cases and a 60%-plus share of all domestic wine sold above £5. How Sula has risen to dwarf the competition in India in just a quarter of a century is a remarkable story. ‘This is not an easy place to make and sell wine, with many producers only lasting three to five years,’ says Peter Csizmadia-Honigh, author of The Wines of India, a Concise Guide (The Press Publishing, 2015) and Senior Judge for Asia at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards. ‘When Sula first started, not even Samant would have predicted such extraordinary and long-term success.’

LIGHTBULB MOMENT