Four Seasons Wines

THE FACTS

Location: Roti village, near Baramati
State: Maharashtra
Founded: 2008
Major shareholders: Grover Zampa Vineyards Limited and Quintela Assets Limited 
Total area: 300 acres (121.45 hectares), of which 50 acres (20.24 hectares) is designated vineyard, but not planted.
Area under vine: 150 acres (all contract farmers)
Production: 1,500,000 litres
Google map: click here

THE STORY

Four Seasons is part of the group of wineries – Grover Zampa, Charosa Winery and Myra Vineyards – controlled by Ravi Viswanathan, following its 2019 acquisition from Diageo, the British multinational alcoholic beverage company. At the time of its foundation, Four Seasons was the wine arm of United Spirits Ltd (USL), India’s largest spirit producer and distributor, promoted by Vijay Mallya. The larger-than-life businessman had to sell USL to Diageo after the collapse of his Kingfisher Airlines and he himself remains a fugitive in the UK. The short but chequered history of Four Seasons left Viswanathan with the monumental task of reviving the fortunes of the winery.

 

The Four Seasons building, in the style of a French château, dominates the flat landscape and radiates the confidence and aspirations of its original creator. The capacity of the cellar is 1.5 million litres, but it had been planned originally for five million litres, so there is ample room for expansion. Constructed in 2007, the first grapes were crushed a year later under the leadership of Abhay Kewadkar, an industry veteran. Since the Grover Zampa acquisition in 2019, viticultural work is directed by Manjunath VG and winemaking is entrusted to Abhijit Shendage.

 

A 14-suite resort-style hotel with pool, jacuzzi, gym and dining facilities is still awaiting investment or an appropriate hospitality partner before it can welcome visitors. The focus so far has been on the making and marketing of wines to maintain the cash flow, while the development of a high-end wine-tourism destination for luxurious weekend escapes and corporate functions keeps getting pushed back for want of the necessary investment.

 

Four Seasons has a commercially sensible portfolio, ranging from premium barrique-matured reserve labels to cash-generating sub-entry-level sweet wines, all for national distribution with a particular focus on India’s north-eastern states.


THE ESTATE

The village of Roti (not be confused with Indian bread, which bears the same name) is a hundred kilometres south-east of Pune. After turning off National Highway 9, the road winds uphill towards a vast expanse of plateau, varying between 500 and 600 metres in altitude. The Four Seasons chateau sits majestically on the right of the road, presiding over a 300-acre estate.

 

The 50-acre vineyard of the estate was awaiting replantation in 2023, so Four Seasons relied on fruit from contract growers, covering 150 acres in total in the Baramati sub-region of Pune as well as Nashik. The Baramati area, always known for its grapes, benefits from a large diurnal temperature range, so the acids remain relatively high and the wines consequently fresh.

 

The processing facility was equipped with world-class machinery imported from France and Italy. It is apparent that no expense was spared to achieve a spick-and-span, streamlined production unit. With everything working like clockwork, there is a sense of reliability and predictability despite the multiple changes in ownership and the lack of continued investment in upgrading cellar technology.

 

The winemaking process is smartly organised on the gravity-flow principle, allowing for gentle handling of the juice throughout. During harvest, the grapes arrive at the winery by late morning and are stored in a chilled warehouse until they cool to 10º C, ready for processing. To complement the Baramati fruit, grapes also arrive by overnight transport from Nashik.

 

The estate radically changed its philosophy of winemaking following the 2019 acquisition. The focus is on fresh and fruity wines with only two barrel-aged labels in the range. Previously, very classic and red wines went through extensive barrel ageing – 15 to 24 months at times – which required some 400 barrels to be housed in the underground cellar, an impressive hall of serious proportions.

 

Four Seasons may have gone through hard times due to changes in ownership and a lack of investment, but with the new winegrowing and winemaking teams in place, there are exciting experiments in the cellar to put the new-era Four Seasons wines on a firm footing of quality.


THE WINES

With its new owners and reshuffled technical team, Four Seasons is in a good position to become a reliable purveyor of quality wines again, bar the sub-entry levels, which are not under discussion here and will merely be listed.

 

From the whites, two have been eliminated: Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier are no longer produced. The Chenin Blanc comes in a zesty and fruity style with a nearly off-dry mouthfeel that combines well with spicy Indian cuisine.

 

The newly defined house style of Four Seasons is that of succulent, fresh and ripe fruits. It is a clear move from the Kewadkar era, which had seen reds elevated in Robert Parker-pleasing Californian tradition – at least 12 months in barrel, big, ripe, weighty, with intense oak flavours and seriously heavy structure. Now, both the Classic Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz are fruit-forward reds.

 

A tasting of five different tank samples of Shiraz from the 2023 vintage showcased the diversity of styles the variety is capable of producing: plush, restrained and inky, and via meaty and peppery with mid-grain tannins to deep, inky with chocolate and fine structure.

 

The Four Seasons Barrique Reserve and Vintner’s Reserve continue to be produced as barrel-aged reds. However, at the time of writing, these were from pre-acquisition vintages that had to be shipped out of the cellar to make space for wines made by Abhijit Shendage.


THE LABELS

Golconda: sub-entry-level sweet port-style wine made from Bangalore Purple with the addition of fructose after fermenting it to 14% alcoholic strength


Zinzin
: semi-sweet, sub-entry-level, clear and bright still wines

  • white: a blend of Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc
  • red: a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Shiraz


Four Seasons Classic: good mid-range, dry varietal still table wines

  • Chenin Blanc
  • Shiraz
  • Cabernet Sauvignon


Four Seasons Barrique Reserve and Vintner’s Reserve
: seriously big and full bodied, generously oaked red wines with plush ripe fruits

  • Cabernet-Shiraz blend
  • Shiraz

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