India's wine regions: Nashik, Nandi Hills and beyond

Wine in the tropics

Classic wine regions sit roughly between 30 and 50 degrees of latitude, where a cold winter puts the vine to sleep and a warm summer ripens the grapes. India's main wine areas sit much closer to the equator. There is no real winter dormancy. The monsoon arrives just when a European vine would be ripening its fruit.

Indian growers work around this with altitude and a pruning calendar. Most wine grapes are grown on the Deccan plateau and in the hills of Karnataka, where elevation keeps nights cooler than the plains. Grape growing in India is mostly about table grapes. Wine grapes are a small slice of it.

Two prunings, one crop

The Indian vineyard year runs on two prunings. After the harvest, around April, the vines are cut back hard so they can rest and build up wood through the hot months and the monsoon. This is often called back pruning or foundation pruning. Around September or October, after the rains, comes the fruit pruning that sets up the crop.

The grapes then ripen through the dry, sunny winter. Harvest falls roughly from January to March. So Indian wine is a northern hemisphere product harvested on what looks like a southern hemisphere calendar. For a planner, that means the Indian vintage arrives at the start of the calendar year, months before a European one. It also sets the earliest date fresh whites from the new vintage can reach the market.

Nashik and Maharashtra

Nashik, north-east of Mumbai, is the best known wine district in India and is often called the country's wine capital. It sits on the plateau at altitude, with dry winters that suit ripening and well-drained soils. It was a large table grape area long before wine, which gave it the growers, nurseries and know-how that wineries later built on.

Elsewhere in Maharashtra, wine grapes are grown in districts such as Sangli and Pune. Maharashtra has also had state policies aimed at encouraging wineries, though, as with every state rule in this business, the details change and should be checked against the current notification.

Nandi Hills and Karnataka

Karnataka is the other major wine state. The Nandi Hills area north of Bengaluru is the name most people know. It is higher and a touch cooler than much of the surrounding country. Its closeness to the city makes it popular for winery visits.

Northern Karnataka has wine grapes too, in districts such as Vijayapura (formerly Bijapur) and Belagavi, on the same plateau that runs up into Maharashtra. Karnataka has also run its own state-level support for wine. Again, check the current rules rather than relying on old summaries.

What grows and what the climate does to it

Indian vineyards grow familiar international varieties: Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc among the whites, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon among the reds, along with Viognier, Zinfandel, Tempranillo and others. Heat and strong sun tend to give ripe fruit and, if picking is late, high sugar with acidity falling fast. Many Indian whites are made to be fresh and drunk young.

The floor detail that matters most is timing. Harvest happens as temperatures climb towards the Indian summer, so picking is done at dawn and fruit is rushed into chilled tanks. A load of grapes left in the sun until noon starts fermenting on the truck. For a refresher on what happens once fruit reaches the winery, see how wine is made.

Beyond the two big states

There is grape growing for wine in smaller pockets elsewhere. New projects appear from time to time. Fruit wines made from other produce also exist, but they sit under different rules from grape wine in many states.

For a corporate team, the practical lesson is that Indian wine is regional. Excise, distribution and retail rules differ by state, which affects how wine moves from Nashik or Nandi Hills to a shelf in Delhi or Hyderabad. Our guide to alcohol regulation for corporate teams covers the process side. Pair that with a tasting of wines from both states and the map on your slide starts to mean something.