Sula wines

Sula Estates in Nashik is located approx 2000 feet above sea level, to the north of Mumbai, in The Western Ghats mountains, giving a climate similar to South Africa.

Nashik is India's largest grape-growing region, but had traditionally never been used to grow wine grapes. Wondering why, an enterprising, Stanford-trained engineer named Rajeev Samant quit his hi-tech Silicon Valley job in 1993 to do some investigating. https://sulawines.com/Home/

A little research quickly showed that the Nashik climate was not only perfect for wine grapes, but was also on par with winegrowing regions in Spain, California, and Australia.

His determination doubled and Rajeev returned to California in search of a winemaker. In Sonoma County he found Kerry Damskey, an eminent Californian winemaker, who enthusiastically agreed to help start a winery on Rajeev's 30 acre family estate.

Grover Zampa wines

Kanwal Grover, as a businessman, dealt in high technological equipment, space program, defence production and machine tools. His company imported products directly and only from France. With each visit to France, his taste for fine wines grew and he was hooked to the great French gastronomy.

His passion for great wines was born.

The passion kept growing while he worked abroad in the early 1960s. His initial aim was to attract more French engineers to India and making quality wines was a sure way to make them stay here.

On one of his trips to France in the early 1970s, he visited some wineries. The process and the beauty of winemaking convinced him to transform his passion into a life time dedication. His dream of Grover Vineyards was incepted in this passion

To realise his dream of creating premium vineyards in India, Grover met George Vesselle, the then Technical Director of Champagne Mumm Vineyard. During their first dinner, they realised that they were born on the same day of the same year – 1925. To celebrate this, Georges Vesselle opened a bottle of Bouzy Rouge 1925 from his private cellar.

The unique friendship made Vesselle accept the challenge of growing French grape varieties in India. They were the pioneers of winemaking in India, exploring the country to find the most appropriate region to grow French grape varieties.
When Georges Vesselle retired, Kanwal Grover looked for a new expert. While travelling in Bordeaux in 1994, he went to Cos d'Estournel, the famous Grand Cru, and met Bruno Prat, who introduced him to Michel Rolland, world's most influential enologist. It was not easy to convince Rolland, who was already busy working with Argentinean and Chilean wineries. He thought Kanwal Grover, at the age of 60, was crazy to take the challenge to make wine in India. But Kanwal Grover's genuine nature and passion struck a chord and Rolland accepted to come to India and see the vineyard.