A trained scientist with a PhD from an American university under his belt, Dr Girennavar is a young entrepreneur. He established Rico, in addition to a bio-fertiliser factory that supplies to farmers over 60,000 acres of cultivated land, to satisfy an appetite to produce wine.

Rico’s vineyard is 60 kilometres from the winery in the Krishna valley and the grapes include Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz. Complementing the fruit harvested in Karnataka, Rico buys in grapes from the Solapur and Sangli sub-regions of Pune in the neighbouring state of Maharashtra. The grapes are transported on trucks to be processed at the Rico winery.

There are nine labels in the current Rico assortment. 60 per cent of the total volume sold is sub-entry-level sweet wine, and includes some fortified. I tasted two dry wines, the 2014 Sauvignon Blanc and the 2010 Cabernet-Shiraz blend, and both were excessively oxidised and unsuitable for consumption.

The new vice-president of Rico, Rajshekhar Shirur, has a background in the IT sector. He has been tasked with turning the winery around by utilising his experience of processes and procedures to delivery quality products and drive sales.