For many years, when one thought of wine, India wasn’t really the country that came to mind. Fine wine was synonymous with countries such as France, Spain, Italy, and the USA. In 1999, Rajeev Samant, along with winemaker Kerry Damskey, founded Sula Vineyards in
Nashik, Maharashtra. They introduced grape varietals like Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc, previously unexplored in Indian winemaking. With a robust production capacity of 16 million litres annually and a 60% market share in the Indian wine industry, over the years Sula became a dominant force in the domestic market and also as a catalyst for Indian wines on the global stage.
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Their Brut Tropicale was the first Indian wine to win a Gold Medal at the International Wine Challenge (IWC) in 2022, and their Source Chenin Blanc Reserve secured India’s first-ever medal at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles in 2023. They went on to become one of the first brands to encourage wine tourism in India and today their vineyards attract over 400,000 visitors annually.
“Rajeev Samant, the founder of Sula was actually one of the first people to come back from America to India. These days you see many people coming back to India since there are opportunities. Back in the day it wasn’t common. He had come to Nasik for a family wedding. The place where the first Sula vineyard opened was his father's land and his father was looking to sell it,” says Sula’s Chief Operating Officer Karan Vasani.
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Rajeev told his dad not to sell the land, saying he wanted to do something there. He tried various things including growing tomatoes and none of it really clicked. But then the brainwave hit that this is an area where grapes have always been grown. Nasik has been growing grapes pretty much since independence. So typically, wherever grapes are grown, you can also grow grapes for making wine. He had earlier worked with Oracle in California and been exposed to wine in California, that’s how it began and the rest is history,” he shares.
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In his office, overlooking Sula’s first vineyard in Nashik, Vasani is all set to begin the 25th year celebrations. The plans are grand, new launches, new tasting rooms, including a 30-room resort at York Winery which is set to open in 2026. He chats with Slurrp about the brand’s journey, its dreams and aspirations. Excerpts from a chat.
Wine was always considered something that older people drink - it's more refined and sophisticated while beer has always had a younger audience. What did it take to make wine cool?
The wine category didn't exist in India for a long time. I always give the example of my own dad. He's 78 and he drinks whisky and vodka. That’s what he has been drinking all these years and continues to do so. We form our consumption habits pretty early in life. Wine has been around in India, Indian wine since, let's say, the mid 80s.
The quality however started getting better mid to late 2000s onwards. It hasn’t been easy to introduce it to people. However, I think there's an affinity to wine. People travel to Europe a lot more these days. So people see wine and the fact that it is a part of the fabric of society in so many countries in the world. I think it's just a natural coming of age movement for wine and I think wine it is also perceived as aspirational.
Wine can also be intimidating. The setting at your wine tasting events aren’t formal at all?
You can show up here in your shorts and your flip-flops and your torn t-shirt, and we couldn't care less. We don’t want wine to be intimidating. Our belief is that life is too short, drink what you like. There are 20 different types of wine and they all taste different. We meet people who come and say, I drank wine once, I didn't like it, so now I don't drink wine. Like they say, too cheap.
When we do our tour people get to taste 6 wines. We guarantee, they won't like all 6. But we guarantee you'll at least love 2 or 3. And I think it just opens people's minds to different varieties and taste profiles. We don't want wine to be the drink of the elite. We want wine to be a drink accessible to the masses. And that's why, the Sula range starts from. 700 bucks to about 1000 bucks. We have ranges above that as well. The Source, Rasa, Dindori, which go up to Rs 2100.
You are also selling wine in a can?
We're trying to market to younger people. We've launched Wine in Cans. People always think wine is served in wine glasses. Sometimes, they don't know how to hold the glass or how to serve. They think I don't have this glass at home, how am I supposed to drink? The answer is, drink how you like it. Drink from the can.
What about the sniff, swirl, sip…?
See that's second. First you enjoy the product. And if you enjoy it enough, you'll learn about it. Wine is such a subject where you can really go crazy and really geek out on it. But you don't need to. You go to Europe, the UK, or America, you'll see people drinking wine. The vast majority know the basics. But they don't know anything beyond it. How many people know how beer is brewed today? The vast majority of people still don't know. What is an IPA? They know Kingfisher or Budweiser, Fosters or Carlsberg. Wine in a can breaks a lot of taboos and barriers. We first launched DIA in a can. And that now in certain parts of Maharashtra. half of DIA sales are in the form of cans.
There's so much more awareness now for Indian gins and Indian whisky. Do you think competition is just making the market bigger?
You're right it's not other wineries. Wine is competing against vodka, gin, tequila, craft beer, all of it. The question becomes when people go out for a drink what are they drinking. Typically the target demographic is 25 to 40 and people are going out for a drink after work.
We want to get them to at least have a glass of wine. Right. Most places you will see people drinking beer or spirits or cocktails these days. So the idea is to expand and put wine into people's conscious minds. We don't expect people to give up their drinking preferences. I think variety is the spice of life. There are dessert wines too that can be enjoyed after a meal. So it can just be a part of your evening.
What kind of wine pairings do you do with Indian food?
We look to break barriers. Because look. India is a country where even McDonald's. The world's most iconic fast food brand makes the Mc Aloo Tikki. One of the best pairings to try is Kanda Bhaji and sparkling wine. It's just beautiful. Once in a while you might do a cheese board but that’s not common. If wine has to become mainstream. Indians will not adapt to wine. Wine will adapt to India and wine is very much suited to Indian food. Particularly white wines and certain red wines are not super big and super bold. They have a little bit of residual sweetness in them. With our spicy food, they are beautiful.
The common perception is that a glass of red wine a day is healthy. Is it?
I think there is growing health awareness. People don't want to be drinking stuff that's either too sweet or too sugary or too carb rich. With cocktails there are so many mixers and sugar syrups. Wine is a healthier option. However, the dose makes the poison. How much matters. A glass of red wine. 2-3 times a week is fine. A bottle a night is not healthy.
In these years what has been the biggest change you’ve seen in the patterns of consumption of wine?
Overall we as a country are waking up to wine. Both Indian and international sales of wine. are growing. In fact the availability of imported wine is increasing quite rapidly. You just have to walk into any of these big, fancy liquor stores and you just see the amount of wine available. Today versus 10 years ago it is dramatically different.
There are so many more options and when there are options people are always curious. So people are trying new things. There is an openness to wine. I think 10-15 years ago, you could have a house party and the host would not even have wine. Today though not everyone is drinking wine, there will be a few wine drinkers at every house party or social gathering.
I think also the acceptance of. Indian wine is increasing dramatically. There is a lot of pride now in Indian gin, Indian coffee, Indian chocolates. I think we are making world class products.
Are there changes you’ve had to the brand over the years?
At one point there was a certain element of the drinking population who said we are too cool for Sula. We don't drink Sula. We used to drink Sula in our childhood. And now I am rich. I have money. I don't drink Sula anymore. We said we know we make good product, so we will do something different. The original Sula label is yellow with a moustache. It's in your face. It's designed like that. So we said let's try something a little different and a little more classic, that’s how the Source label came about. It has the picture of the Source because this place was the source of wines in the Nasik Valley.
We wanted to do wine that India had never seen before. That's why we launched the Source. And it was the first wine we launched. We launched the Grenache Rose. At the time, Rose is in India was strawberry pink and sweet and a bit of frivolous.
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Overseas Rose from Provence in France was gaining a lot of popularity and they were much lighter in colour. They were not sweet and quite dry. We said let's try and do something similar. We made 5000-6000 bottles because we don't know if this will sell because India had never tasted that kind of wine before. We were fully prepared to drink it all ourselves but we were shocked. Within 4 months it was sold out. And since then we have struggled to keep up with demand. Today we make 1 lakh bottles. We have also recently launched the Pinot Noir and Moscato.
If you had to give me an unbiased view of where you think Indian wine stands globally, how would you say it's doing?
I think Indian wine at its price point, which is let's say if we convert into USD which would be anywhere from let's say 8 USD to about 25 USD is extremely price competitive. Today if a consumer in a supermarket in the UK or in the US or wherever was picking up equivalently priced wines and picked up a bottle of Sula in the same price category they would have a good time. They would not be disappointed. Of course you can't compare a $200 imported wine with our $20 wine. But then you can't compare $200 wine with another $20 wine anyway. So I think and gradually we aim to keep moving up the ladder. That's the aim.