The picturesque valleys and romantic hillsides of scenic wine country are replaced by soulless concrete factories at Baramati’s industrial estate, through which lies the approach to Nira Valley Grape Wines. The brutal reality of contemporary Indian wine production looms close as the aftermath of a burst bubble unfolds for the spectator.

Four former friends, who had studied engineering together, decided to jump on the wine-producing wagon, reasoning that experience in stainless-steel-equipment production for the dairy industry as well as some private land would be sufficient to start a winery. Unfortunately, Chateau Indage collapsed, a serious blow for Nira Valley Grape Wines, as it had channelled most of its production to the now defunct Indage.

With no sales skills or network, the winery now fights for survival. The 200,000 litres that it manages to sell per annum does not account for even half of what it produces, and is only an eighth of the total capacity of the winery. It is a ghost house with tanks holding stocks dating to vintages as far back as 2009. 2013 was the last year when grapes were crushed.

Pratima Chavan, Rupali Thorat and Dhanashree Pawar, all three science graduates and teetotallers, are the young women in charge of the winery. To the extent that the circumstances and lack of cash allow, they keep things very organised, but one’s mind may boggle at the fact that they do all this without once tasting the wine or any alcohol at all. Doing their best to commercialise as much of the wine as possible, they adjust sweetness levels by the addition of fructose and acidification helps to maintain the freshness to a certain degree. The resulting sub-entry-level wines are shipped to consumers in India and some export markets, such as Italy, China and Japan.

The branding is tacky with names such as Vampire, Harmony and Celesta, yet the main issue is that old vintages, long dried out and dead, are put on the market while drinkable, simple, entry-level wines, as, for example, vintage 2013, sit in the tank awaiting their turn to be sold in the years to come.

Dried out fruits and dusty tannins, old and at times oxidised. Enriched with fructose and acids, well below sub-entry level. Not recommended.

Luca: a brand for the Japanese market

KamaSutra: originally produced for the now defunct Nirvana Biosys, who claimed to have produced wine not far from New Delhi

Vampire: a brand for the Hong Kong market, but may well end up in China

Harmony: a brand for the Hong Kong market, but may well end up in China

Celesta: varietal ‘premium’ brands of Chenin Blanc, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon, all sweetened