The soil hereabouts being excellent for growing grapes, the next step—of turning grapes into wine—was but inevitable, though it did take some time. But once the business came to the city’s outskirts via a handful of wine makers, there was no looking back. And, even as a splendid selection of reds, whites, roses and
sparkling wines were making their debut, Bangaloreans were making it a wholly pleasurable, interactive process. A few years ago, tours of vineyards, wine-tasting trips, a morning spent stomping grapes in a
barrel, wine fairs, wine education courses, all were nouvelle entertainment for city denizens and one experience they embraced most happily.
Locally made wines flooded
five-star restaurants
and the shelves of
upmarket departmental
stores, and people were
glugging it down like it
was cola. Le vin, it
had arrived. What’s
more, wine proved
that it was in for
the long term. Even
as immediate interest
in vineyards faded,
even as public attention moved onto the next big thing (in-house breweries, in this
case), wine has sustained steady sales in Bangalore. Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernets, sparkling
table wines, rose, all continue to find enthusiastic drinkers and records for just the last one
year show that 4,05,000 litres have been quaffed in Bangalore. Apparently, red wines
score big (55 per cent of sales) followed closely behind by white wines at 40 per cent. A
mature approach by the state government in granting wine licenses is another boost
factor. What has further helped sales of wine is that this drink goes well when paired
with Indian food, despite purists scoffing at the very notion. People have started to cook
with wine, join wine clubs, effortlessly make it part of their everyday lives, divesting
it of any myth or mystery.
Heritage Wines set themselves up in 2004 and have been steadily making their presence
felt in and around Bangalore since then. Here at the Heritage vineyard in
Channapatna, there are eight acres of land given over to vineyards, the rest
comprising the winery and restaurant. The winery is a large barn-like room
where the grapes are sorted, pulped, fermented. The free run wine is pumped
into huge tanks; the last steps in the process involve filtration and bottling.
People go about their tasks quietly and efficiently, and the bottling, labeling
and sealing conveyor belt gleams silver in the soft light coming through the
open doors. Back at the wine parlour, we watch a short film on the setting up
of the Heritage vineyard and the making of the brand’s wines.
Heritage, with a line-up of six wines—Cabernet red wine, Shiraz red wine,
Chenin Blanc white wine, Twist bubbly wine, Heritage 2000 premium wine,
Heritage sweet red wine—claims to have cornered 75 per cent of
Bangalore’s wine market. The wine tasting that follows makes for much
fun, given that we become instant poseurs with the wine glasses, studying
the glow of colour intently, swirling, sniffing, gargling just a wee bit and in
as genteel fashion as possible, tasting but refusing to spit, pinkie held out
stiffly all the while. Me, I’ve always been a Philistine (how I asked for
dessert wines all over the Napa Valley is a story for another day) so
I took quite a shine to the fruit-flavoured Twist and Chenin Blanc
rather than the other undoubtedly excellent Heritage dry whites and reds.
These are not top-draw wines but if you are looking for light table wines
with enough body, then these wines are excellent. The best part of the tour is
yet to come. We troop out to the in-house restaurant Epulo for lunch and
sit outside partaking of more wine (but of course) as the dishes come to
the table one by one. ‘Epulo’ is feast in Latin and at the end of the meal,
I had to agree. The menu lists Continental as well as desi dishes
(even a dum biriyani) all cooked to perfection with none of the sauces
overwhelming the dish itself. The dessert menu isn’t the most varied
but we did have some amazing ice cream. And of course, when we leave
the place, it is with cartons of the good stuff they make here at
the Heritage Winery. Luckily for aficionados and unpretentious wine
drinkers, Heritage wines aren’t too expensive a proposition at all. All in
all, a day well spent.