Vallonné Vineyards

Founder and managing director Shailendra Pai acquired 21 acres of rolling grassland near Kavnai village in 2006 to start Vallonné Vineyards as a small boutique operation a year later. The inaugural vintage of 2009 was crushed from grapes grown by contracted farmers on another 28 acres located around the villages of Niphad, Pimpalgaon and Dindori. Soon after launching in the market, Pai built an enviable brand reputation for high-quality wines distributed mainly in the restaurants of Mumbai, Pune and Goa, but the winery has remained boutique-sized.

Extremely focused and marketing savvy, Pai clearly understands the importance of both quality and consumer experience, and that success takes time and continuous development to keep wine lovers satisfied. This is not surprising as he played an instrumental role in exporting the wines of the now defunct Chateau Indage to the UK, Singapore and Sweden in the 1990s.

The cellars at Vallonné Vineyards accurately reflect his unpretentious and humble approach. The boutique resort was built in two stages: for years, only the winemaking cellar existed while the upper floors stood unfinished, as if abandoned by the builders midstream. It was in late 2015 that the hospitality facilities were completed. Upon entering the gates, the visitor is welcomed by a beautifully landscaped garden. A path leads to the porch of the restaurant and the four-bedroom guesthouse; the semi-subterranean winery abuts on the right. The restaurant uses fresh organic produce from the estate’s kitchen garden and has a generous terrace. Each of the four rooms of the guesthouse boasts a large balcony with sufficient cover to ward off the monsoon rain. With picturesque views of the Mukane reservoir and Igatpuri hills, these balconies and the restaurant’s terrace are the perfect spots to relax.

Pai continues to channel investment into the vineyard, winemaking and marketing, which pays dividends when it comes to the quality and range of the Vallonné portfolio of wines. Marie Barbé, a Bordeaux-based consultant winemaker, initially oversaw much of the most critical periods of production in India, which benefited the wines immensely and allowed Sanket Gawand and Ashmita Pol, local microbiology graduates, to hone their winemaking skills. With Pol leaving to get married, Gawand is now firmly at the helm as winemaker and Pai as cellar master.

The winery is situated approximately 50 kilometres south-west of Nashik, near Kavnai village in the Igatpuri area. A road – which despite a layer of tarmac is still almost a dirt track – connects the Nashik-Bombay highway to Vallonné Vineyards, winding through small villages and modest but neatly organised farms. Drivers are well advised to look out for the many children who cycle and run around freely. The winery sits atop a hill overlooking the Mukane reservoir, with the Sahyadri ranges forming the backdrop. It is a perfect picture-postcard view, especially if you catch the sunrise or indulge in a sundowner.

The annual precipitation is something of a talking point. Igatpuri, the westernmost area of Nashik district, receives about 3,500 millimetres of rain, while Nashik city, Dindori and Niphad may receive only 550 millimetres per annum. The rainfall everywhere is concentrated in the monsoon period (though unseasonal rain is becoming more frequent with scattered showers stretching even into early December), but the water tables can vary.

Vallonné has 21 acres of their own land at this location. For the first few vintages, all grapes were supplied by contract growers from villages north and north-east of Nashik. Originally, the focus was on two white varieties: Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc.

Until 2017, when it was uprooted, Sauvignon Blanc was grown on medium-fertile clay soils with porous bedrock at a depth of about 0.6 metre. The year 2022 saw the maiden vintage of the new plantation which was established with a contract grower and grafted on R110 rootstock near Sinnar, south-east of Nashik. This location, along the road to Pune, has less fertile soils, so weeds are under control and the wines have a more modest green bell-pepper character due to lower amounts of pyrazine. It is, however, not only the soils that contributed to a reduction in pyrazine, but a conscious viticultural programme which included changing the orientation of rows, leaf plucking and a reduction in the number of bunches.

Chenin Blanc also had a few years of hiatus from the Vallonné range of wines. Pai thought that Chenin, having done good service in tempting novice wine drinkers initially, had become too popular to any longer offer a point of difference. The commercial success of the variety, however, has seen its return into the portfolio as a dry white wine too.

In the red wines, Cabernet, Merlot and Malbec used to be Vallonné’s classic varieties. There was a problem with leaf-roll virus in the vineyard, leading to five acres of Cabernet Sauvignon being uprooted, and Malbec fell victim to viticultural changes over the years. Shiraz was made from contract-grown grapes for the first time with the 2014 vintage. That same year – 2014 – 10 acres of the estate were prepared for planting: Riesling (2.5 acres), Merlot (2.5 acres), Cabernet Sauvignon (3.5 acres) and Shiraz (1.5 acres), despite the initial plans being for only Merlot and Malbec. It was in the 2017 vintage that these grapes were crushed for wine for the first time.

2014 also saw the planting of Viognier in rented vineyards. It was made consistently into high quality, fragrant wines until 2022, when it was uprooted due to leaf-roll virus in the vineyard and replanted on P1103 rootstock. 2022 was the maiden vintage of Muscat, which produced an initial batch of 500 bottles.

Viticultural experimentation is important to both Pai and Gawand, so new plots of Mourvèdre, Tempranillo, Pinot Noir, Gewürztraminer, Malbec and Petit Syrah were planted in 2019. Dissatisfied with the overly vigorous and leaf-roll virus-prone Dogridge, R110 and P1103 rootstocks were selected for these new blocks of vines grown by contract farmers.

A diversity of trellising characterises the vineyards with VSP (vertical shoot positioning) being the most common for most black grapes planted at 7 x 3 feet density; but there is some Merlot trained on Lyre 8 x 4 feet and Syrah planted as bush vines at 4 x 4 feet density. (1 foot = 30.48 centimetres.)

The viticultural practice of leaf-plucking is said to improve sun exposure and thus help in the development of the fruity aromas of Vallonné’s wines. The red wines undergo spontaneous malolactic fermentation, which is faster and better than the inoculation that was tried earlier. In most years, the reds need adjusting for acids, though there are vintages such as 2009, 2013 and 2019 when the lingering winter gave the grapes a longer hang time without having to face the heat of the approaching monsoon season.

Vallonné has an in-house laboratory to conduct a wide range of analyses, including pH, total acidity, volatile acidity, alcohol, residual sugar, sulphur and bottle stability. Once the wines are bottled, the whites and the rosé are snapped up in no time, but the reds need to be matured normally for 12 to 18 months in the underground cellar before release.

The property prides itself on producing ‘French-styled wines’, which, if understood as a balanced and skilful use of oak, is exactly what it does. The richness and generous weight of the fruits, however, is most certainly New World in nature. The house style of Vallonné is really about the fine balance between texture and flavours, which lends it elegance.

The Sauvignon Blanc preserves the crisp and youthful fruits through gentle, whole-bunch pressing and the separation of free-run juice and press wine, which undergo reductive and oxidative settling, respectively, before being co-fermented. Gradually waning batonnage – fewer stirrings of lees in the barrel each week – further helps build the texture of the final wine.

Vallonné Rosé could still well be the only pink wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon in India. It is peppery and fresh in style with good fruit weight.

The reds tend to receive three days of a cold soak before being inoculated for fermentation, which begins normally at 14–15º C and goes up to 29–30º C to maintain extraction. With varieties such as Syrah, the level of extraction may of course increase. All red varieties are fermented separately and if they are destined to become blends, they will be aged together. The length of barrel ageing averages between 12 and 15 months, with the use of 40–50 per cent of new oak. The exceptions are the entry-level Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah-Merlot, which get their oak flavour through the use of chips or old French barrels.

The dessert Chenin Blanc is a ‘vin de passerillage’,made from grapes dried on straw before pressing. The residual sugar can range from 60 to 160 grams per litre, dependent on vintage, and the wine is full of dried orange peel, peach and apricot aromas, resembling a lighter Tokaji in nature. Its red version was made from Syrah in the 2023 vintage for the first time with the residual sugar reaching 165 grams per litre, making it luscious and well suited for chocolate-based desserts.

The Wines of India
by The Press Publishing Ltd.

The Wines of India

Vallonné Vineyards

THE FACTS

THE STORY

THE ESTATE

THE WINES

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