Grover Zampa Vineyards
THE FACTS
THE STORY
Grover Zampa Vineyards emerged as a single entity in 2012 from the merger of industry veteran Grover Vineyards in the Nandi Hills and the then dynamic young kid on the block, Vallée de Vin in Nashik, to create the second largest producer in India. The merger improved both the quality and consistency of all wines across the board to such a degree that Grover Zampa received ever more international recognition and wine-competition accolades. The growth of Grover Zampa was fuelled by the continued investment of Ravi Viswanathan’s VisVires Capital, a Singapore-based investment fund. In 2019 the fund provided further financing for the acquisition of Charosa Winery in Nashik, Four Seasons Wines outside Pune, and Myra Vineyards, the Bangalore-based young and hip brand (see each individual profile). Viswanathan’s belief in the benefits of consolidating operations whilst maintaining the distinct brand identity and winemaking philosophy of each property led to the creation of the Indian wine industry’s first multi-faceted business. Little was it suspected that the growth of the domestic wine market, thriving due to the seemingly unstoppable rise of the Indian middle class, would be abruptly arrested by the Covid-19 pandemic. The virus may have slowed down investment in tourism and hospitality development in both Nashik and Bangalore, but work in the vineyards and winery had to continue.
The history of Grover Vineyards dates to the late 1980s, when Kanwal Grover, a businessman dealing in technological equipment from France, not only fell in love with French gastronomy and wines, but also visited numerous vineyards and eventually convinced Georges Vesselle, technical director of Champagne Mumm, to assist in the setting up of Grover Vineyards. After eight years of experimenting with 34 varieties in ten different locations, their first wine was launched from grapes grown in the Nandi Hills outside Bangalore in Karnataka. The year was 1996.
Focusing on Chenin Blanc, Viognier, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, Grover became rapidly established as a reputable supplier of quality Indian wines. Michel Rolland, a leading Bordeaux oenology consultant, started as an advisor to the Grover family in 1995 and still continues to lend his expertise to Grover Zampa, making his involvement with India the longest when compared to any other international consultant. At one point, three generations of Grovers were actively involved in the company before their shareholding became minimal. Kanwal’s son, Kapil, was chairman for several years, and Kapil’s daughter, the UC Davis-trained winemaker Karishma Grover, with experience gained at Cakebread Cellars in Napa Valley, California, was responsible for technical direction. In 2018, however, she returned to the USA for a Stanford MBA and changed her focus to the branding and marketing side of the wine business, working for DAOU Family Estates in Central California.
Vallée de Vin was set up in 2006 as a truly boutique winery by spirit-industry veteran Ravi Jain and young marketing executive Neeraj Deorah. Zampa was the core brand of the company, which crafted wines from both estate-grown fruit and contracted grapes. The winery, tucked into the hillside of the 12-acre estate near the village of Sanjegaon in the vicinity of Nashik, commands breathtaking views and awaits transformation into a wine tourism centre for Grover Zampa.
THE ESTATE
The Grover Zampa winery and vineyards are easily accessible, located in a valley of the Nandi Hills only 40 kilometres north of Bangalore along National Highway 7. The area is the prime wine region of Karnataka, benefiting from a moderate climate brought about by the higher altitude, which ranges from 920 to 1,479 metres. The cool summers and benign winters draw an ever-growing number of tourists, so it is little wonder that the once modest gardens of the winery, just off a busy main road in the village of Raghunathpura, have been transformed into a visitor centre comprising a tasting room, a bottle shop and a restaurant. In alluring tranquillity, visitors can indulge in a cellar tour, wine tasting and some delicious bites.
Grover Zampa has its own vineyards as well as lands on long-term lease, typically for 10–20 years. With the Nandi Valley becoming highly attractive to developers and land prices rocketing skywards, producers have sought out vineyards farther afield. Grover Zampa has considerable contracted growing, especially in the northern Karnataka and southern Maharashtra areas of Bijapur, Bagalkote and Solapur, a nearly 12-hour drive by lorry. This requires careful planning of afternoon harvests and overnight transportation as well as the use of dry ice to keep the grapes cool.
The sum of the various vineyard areas adds up to about 500 acres. Grover Zampa’s own viticultural team provides technical expertise to 125 farmers so that grapes of a specific maturity – measured by pH, acidity, peeps and tannins’ analysis – can be harvested throughout, regardless of ownership. It has taken years of painstaking collaboration to achieve a gradual reduction in the yield, so now farmers typically supply 3.5 to 4 rather than 5 to 6 tons per acre.
Except for some older pergola-trained vineyards, all the vines are on medium-high cordon for greater exposure to the sun and hence better aeration and ripening. The red loamy soil has good water-holding capacity, but irrigation remains a necessity because precipitation is confined to only the monsoon months. Wise management of water supplied by boreholes is imperative, hence the gradual introduction of subsurface irrigation and the use of data collected from Grover Zampa’s own weather stations.
The established Grover Zampa varieties in Karnataka include three whites (Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier) and three reds (Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Tempranillo). There are also smaller quantities of Muscat Blanc àPetit Grains, Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc and some Georgian varieties, some under trial, in the Nandi Hills vineyards. In the vineyard, the main pests and diseases from which the grapes need to be safeguarded are flea beetle, mealybugs, birds and wild boar, as well as powdery and downy mildew. The greatest mildew danger is during the pre-growing-season pruning in September and October, as it is the time of the north-easterly monsoon, which is, comparatively speaking, heavier than the south-westerly, prevalent from early July through to September.
Winemaking is meticulously organised, lending full weight to the ISO certification. The grapes are chilled in the cooling room before manual selection, which is followed by destemming for the reds, then crushing and pressing. In order to protect the volatile aromatic compounds, the white wines are fermented at lower temperatures, around 14–15˚ C, for 20 days to a month. The red wines complete fermentation within five to nine days at temperatures of 23–24˚ C, and the extraction of colour and tannins is aided by 21–22 days of post-alcoholic maceration. It must be noted that the Grover Zampa rosé is purpose-made, and not a result merely of bleeding juice off from red-wine tanks.
Not every wine makes the cut to the barrel room, an underground temple for all wine lovers. An assortment of French oak barriques fill most of the cellar from coopers that include Quintessence, Saury and Radoux; and a variety of other maturation vessels include concrete tanks and eggs, amphoras and foudres of varying sizes. It is only the finest reds that have the privilege of ageing in these unusual vessel types.
When the wines are ready, the quality control and assurance teams ensure both protein and tartrate stability through fining and cold settling before bottling, labelling and dispatch. In order to comply with the state regulation of the destination market, a sticker or a touch of paint is manually applied to every bottle to include statutory warnings.
The Nashik estate of Grover Zampa is accessible from the Mumbai–Nashik highway. The route cuts through tiny villages of simple homes, concrete shells or mud-and-thatch. The dirt track curves on to undulating hills; at one of the outcrops the winery melts into the sandy, ginger-red, rugged terrain.
On this winery’s own vineyard, only 12 acres in area, are grown Viognier, Shiraz, Tempranillo and Grenache. All the other varieties, including the recent additions of Riesling, Chardonnay and Sangiovese, are contract grown in Nashik. Interestingly, the few blocks of vines around the building are managed organically, which is possible mainly because here, on the steeper slope, they are kept drier by their exposure to the wind, thus reducing fungal pressure. Other blocks of vines, however, go through a rigorous spraying programme between the end of the monsoon and the early phase of the dry season. In addition to mildew, pests can include caterpillars, mealybugs, thrips and red mites.
Taking advantage of the sloping terrain, a gravity-flow winery was constructed to help in the gentle treatment of must and wine alike. In the swish re-designed tasting room, which is in the centre of the barrel-ageing cellar, wine lovers may sink into enormous armchairs around a table of even larger dimensions to savour Grover Zampa wines against the backdrop of barriques. The hospitality and tourism facilities, however, are all under redevelopment and construction, so visitors must await completion before appointments become available again.
THE LABELS
Raya: simple and straightforward, entry-level wines
- white
- red
One Tree Hill (OTH): simple, well-made wines with a touch of sugar, and so in off-dry style and rich in ripe fruits with intense aromatics
- white: from a blend of Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Viognier
- red: Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Zinfandel blend
Santé: easy to understand and uncomplicated; the bit of sweetness and its funky labels, which feature partying crowds, convey a hearty ‘Cheers’ – or should that be ‘Santé’?
- Chenin Blanc
- Rosé
- Shiraz
Art Collection: with labels reproducing paintings by contemporary Indian artists, the quality of these six wines is on par with any from the original Grover stable; possibly more French oak on the reds, as opposed to American oak for the Zampa wines
- Chenin Blanc
- Sauvignon Blanc
- Riesling
- Viognier
- Cabernet Sauvignon
- Shiraz
- Shiraz Rosé
- Merlot
- Late Harvest (sweet)
La Réserve: a Michel Rolland creation; for
a long time only a Bordeaux-inspired, rich and weightier red wine under this
label, with the recent addition of a white
- La Réserve Royale Brut: made from Chenin Blanc exclusively, a third of it fermented and aged in barrel, generously long ageing on lees; may reach 30 months
- La Réserve Blanc: a pure or predominantly barrique-aged Viognier with up to 10% Sauvignon Blanc; crisp, richly textured and attractively aromatic
- La Réserve Fumé Blanc: a barrel fermented and aged Sauvignon Blanc
- La Réserve: Cabernet Sauvignon dominated, produced in both the Nandi Hills and the Nashik valley, the pair showing perfectly that terroir exists in India
- La Réserve Syrah Grenache: variation on the classic La Réserve, with barrel fermentation and ageing for 6 months
Chêne: generously oaked aged wines.
- Chardonnay: rich and full-bodied as a result of bâtonnage and barrel ageing
- Grand Reserve: premium red blend of Syrah and Tempranillo, impressively intense, and richly spiced with an array of ripe fruits and all the flavoursome benefits of 15 months of barrel-ageing while retaining a gentle touch
Vijay Amritraj Reserve Collection: premium
white and red wines, named after India’s famous Chennai-born tennis player, now
resident in California
- white: made from 100% barrel-aged Viognier, charmingly aromatic and fragrant, creamy in texture with a touch of mineral freshness
- red: produced in Karnataka and Maharashtra, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz taking the lead in both states, but with a tiny bit of Tempranillo and Viognier respectively, followed by generous barrel-ageing; rich, intense and spicy with a serious structure, yet pleasantlyapproachable
Zampa Soirée: in brut style from a single variety
- Brut: made from 100% Chenin, it is attractively fresh; though the yeasty and biscotti tones are at first unassuming, they show good endurance on the back palate
- Brut Rosé: a pure Syrah sparkling, onion-skin colour with a modest vivacity and concentration, it definitely allows the white brut to shine
Signet: premium collection of red wines, most made from Shiraz and one
created as a blend; the difference coming from the type of vessel (barrique,
1,000-litre and 2,000-litre foudre, amphora and concrete tank) and the length
of maturation; all are full-bodied and will benefit from decanting
Auriga: a Chenin Blanc sparkling wine with gold flakes to bring the bling to the occasion; specially designed for weddings
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