Soul Tree
THE FACTS
THE STORY
Soul Tree is young Indian wine brand with a British twist. On an MBA course together at Oxford, d’Souza and Mathur realised that they were both weary of the corporate rat race. So, instead of picking up a lucrative, but soul-destroying job in the City of London, they decided to seek satisfaction instead and pursue the idea of Soul Tree.
Having analysed the market, the pair concluded that Indian restaurants in the UK and other Western countries offered an unexploited opportunity for Indian wines. They set about creating a brand, having the wines made, and by 2010 already had 5,000 litres of wine to sell as a pilot. The response was resoundingly positive. Approximately a hundred restaurants in the southern English county of Surrey listed Soul Tree wines in 2011 and, currently, there are 26 distributors in the UK and the brand is also present in the German and US markets.
Growth potential was initially limited by finances, but not for long. In 2014 Soul Tree successfully raised £ 365,000 through crowd funding: it got 218 investors from 18 countries in return for 17 per cent of equity. With the capital they have raised, Mathur and d’Souza plan to scale up production, build a commercial team and enhance creative marketing.
It is an innovative business, with the wines made at Shrirampur’s Oakwood Winery and at Good Drop Cellars, both in Maharashtra, and transported by sea to the UK, which accounts for 95 per cent of all sales. Soul Tree has often been featured in on-air and print media worldwide, and d’Souza and Mathur have won an enviable list of awards for achieving so much in so short a time.
THE WINES
Fruit focused, generous and approachable entry-level to lower-mid-market wines. The sparkling is work in progress, both the varieties and the sugar level, but the Sauvignon Blanc and the Reserve Shiraz and Cabernet showed well when I tasted them in India. I should like to see distribution times shortened and conditions better controlled, because the difference in quality between the wines tasted in India and those in the UK was detectable, with the ones tasted in London at a disadvantage.
THE LABELS
Soul Tree
- Aikya: its name derived from Sanskrit term for being at one with the surroundings, this charmat-method sparkling wine has a bit of sweetness, lower acids and a musky taste due to the use of Symphony grapes in the blend; I am not convinced it is entirely suited to the European palate. The next lot will have only Chenin Blanc, so will show a cleaner taste profile, and is something to anticipate rather than the current vintage on the market
- Sauvignon Blanc: clean, straightforward, bit zesty and nicely fresh
- rosé: Shiraz and Zinfandel blend; sample tasted in summer of 2015 from 2013 vintage, so fruits tired, but may have been a nice quaffing wine when young and, hopefully, new vintage will be sold quicker
- Shiraz: simple, fairly alcoholic, unoaked
- Cabernet Sauvignon: smooth texture, but noticable alcohol; unoaked
Soul Tree Reserve
- Shiraz-Cabernet Sauvignon (60-40%): nicely balanced, some complexity, barrel aged for a year
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