Tuesday, 19th August 2025

Nearly three dozen wines, two vintages and one monsoon morning in Akluj. Some were unfinished; a few were not even blended, and one or two were poured in my glass straight from the tank. This is the part of the year I like best — tasting the wine before it has been fully elevated and learned to behave – when it still tells the story of an unpolished diamond.

The day held the promise of tasting aplenty. I wanted to review all the new wines from the 2025 vintage, and I expected barrel-matured reds from the 2024 vintage or, for premium labels, earlier vintages to be poured too. I was not disappointed. Bramha and Sunil, resident winemakers who report to head winemaker Giovanni Masi, were my hosts and brought out nearly 30 wines from the cellar for the vintage review tasting. Some literally from the tank or barrel!

Giovanni has spent much of his time in India since taking charge of all winemaking on the death of his father in 2022. We missed each other by a couple of days, but I had the pleasure of tasting the results of his and his team’s work.

Three years on, the stylistic transformation he has achieved is obvious. He crafts wines that celebrate varietal fruit character – in its simplicity, purity or generosity – and let both vintage and terroir speak honestly. Because the top labels, Sette and J’Noon, are made exclusively from estate-grown fruit, that philosophy has taken Fratelli’s wines to another level. No mean feat, given that his late father, Piero Masi, was a master of the trade who also enjoyed the counsel of industry stalwart Steven Spurrier. Nearly 30 wines would be the test of it.

We began with a little sparkle in the morning. Two samples of Gran Cuvée Brut, the classic method sparkling wine of Fratelli, were poured into my glass. Whilst the product is sold as non-vintage, I compared and contrasted vintages 2025 and 2024. The winemaking is identical: 90% Chenin Blanc is complemented by equal parts of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc; the second fermentation takes place in the bottle, with up to three months’ ageing on lees –lending a sparkling wine its brioche character. The two sparklers were very close in quality and strikingly similar in style, which is exactly what is required to maintain brand consistency from year to year.

Then came three whites: Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc – two vintages from each variety side by side. All six wines showed nicely. When comparing the vintages, 2025 was not merely fresher, as one would expect of the younger wine: the fruit also had an inherent elegance and playfulness, making the overall palate finely balanced. The 2025 Chenin Blanc had a pre-bottling haze which is fairly normal with new wines, but it did not detract from the classic woolly, linseed and citrus tones. Neither vintage of the Chardonnay is oaked. The buttery tones on the 2024 complemented the ripe fruit profile nicely, whilst the 2025 impressed with its mineral backbone and singingly fresh character. The Sauvignon Blanc was simply delicious. Both vintages were made in a super-charged Loire style, with asparagus, citrus and mint-leaf tones taking centre stage, though never so grassy as to be mistaken for New Zealand. These whites are a reminder that not every wine need aspire to gravitas and a decade in the cellar. Drink them young and fresh: that is where their pleasure lies.

After tasting the fruity selection of whites, we moved on to the premium range: M/S and J’Noon. Grapes for these labels are sourced from Fratelli’s own vineyards only. M/S white is a blend of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, dominated by the former. It is lightly oaked with wood chips. The 2024 vintage was forthcoming with ripe apples, grapefruit and honey tones under the grassy veil of Sauvignon. The younger 2025 was less intense yet better concentrated, with attractive zesty notes of lime, asparagus and grapefruit.

Next in the line-up was J’Noon, the super-premium single-varietal white from the Fratelli stable produced in joint venture with Jean-Charles Boisset of Burgundy and Napa Valley. Made exclusively from Chardonnay, it completed its malolactic fermentation – the conversion of sharp malic acid into softer lactic acid – in barrel, then aged there for a further six months. The resultant wine is big, generous and rich, full of vanilla, butterscotch and toast. The 2023 showed marginally better than the 2024, though both were very attractive. Unlike previous vintages of white J’Noon, generosity was paired with freshness and good concentration in both vintages. The rich mineral backbone elevated the 2023 vintage further.

A fresh, simple and fruity Sangiovese rosé provided the transition from white to red wines. I enjoy Fratelli’s rosé because it is frank, fresh and has a nice grip on the palate, even though the juice was run off the skins immediately after pressing.

Pinot Noir, once notoriously difficult to grow in India, now appears in more and more portfolios, and Fratelli’s is no exception. True to the variety, the 2025 vintage is a light red wine, dominated by ripe red fruits, though the mid-palate feels a little phenolic – faintly bitter and grippy – despite the fine-grained tannins. Decent, pleasant and eminently quaffable. The red Sangiovese married cherry and raspberry to mint, its low tannin keeping it smooth. Both reds would be perfect for a weekday dinner.

The single-varietal Cabernet Sauvignon was a pleasant surprise. Fratelli’s Cabernet has tended towards the light and feeble, never to my taste. The 2025, however, is approachable yet bursting with cassis, cherry and blackberry. Smoothly structured and generously spiced with oak, the variety has re-emerged in a new avatar. Whilst the 2025 Merlot impressed with its attractive aromatic nose, it was green, astringent and short. The 2024 M/S red, however, was all about the generosity of ripe black fruits, good concentration, spices and plush mouthfeel.

There were two labels left to taste: Sette and J’Noon red, the super-premium labels of Fratelli Vineyards.

The 2023 Sette had been bottled shortly before my visit, after 18 months in barrel. The 2024 samples were all taken from tanks, as the wines had just completed barrel maturation and were being prepared for blending. When comparing 2023 and 2024, the character of the red fruits sets them apart. The 2023 had good intensity too, but leaned towards dried cherry and raspberry where the 2024 offered plush, rich cherry and blueberry. Correspondingly, the tannins of 2023 felt smooth but firmer than the plush and velvety 2024. I tasted a total of four samples from vintage 2024, because the first one showed some off flavours. A useful reminder of how much pre-blending samples of the same wine can differ, vessel by vessel, and of how much of a label’s style is created at the blending bench.

I finished the vintage review tasting with the 2023 and 2024 J’Noon reds, the latter a tank sample, for the reasons given above. The grape varieties in the blend change from vintage to vintage, but what is constant is that it is dominated by Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, or both. The 2023 already showed a fair degree of maturity, quite possibly owing to the ever-so-slight touch of Brett – brettanomyces, a yeast that in small doses lends savoury, leathery complexity and in large ones ruins a wine. Here, as in many an Italian red, it read as a complement rather than a fault. Dried mushrooms, forest floor and leathery tones lace the intense dark fruits, and the wine has a great depth and concentration. The 2024, by contrast, beamed with inky, peppery dark fruit, riper than the 2023 yet elegant with it. It was showy early on, so definitely one to look out for once bottled and available in the market.

Both vintages produced attractive wines, but 2025 was the superior of the two on the day. The likeliest explanation is fruit quality: 2024 saw rain during harvest, which damaged the grapes. Bramha and Sunil added that improved cellar technology had probably played its part too. 

We took the Fratelli jeep out into the vineyards while the sky, unable to decide whether to break, settled on the occasional drizzle.

In the evening, I caught up with Vrushal Kedari, formerly head of winemaking, who had come to take part in the blending. Kedari lived full time in Akluj until he changed roles on marrying. As a Brand Ambassador for Fratelli Vineyards, he moved to his native Mumbai, where he evangelises for wine – Fratelli wines, to be precise. 

I have seen these rolling hills countless times, yet the rugged vista of southern Maharashtra never tires the eye – least of all with a glass of Fratelli in hand.