In yet another media report on Nashik's wine industry, The Times of London highlights the exotic blend of tradition and modernity in the vineyards of "one of the world's fastest growing wine regions," where "leopards emerge from the forested hills to prowl around the crops" and where "shrines to Hindu gods help to protect the grapes from evil spirits and the bottling is done by hand by women in saris."

And of course the newspaper tells the story of Rajiv Samant, one of a handful of people bidding to turn a near-cottage industry into a multi-national business taken seriously by connoisseurs and wine snobs the world over.

"It is somewhere between New Zealand and South Africa ," the newspaper quotes Sula's winemaker, Ajoy Shaw, as saying about Nashik. "We get the right balance of acid and sugar. The most successful grape is the shiraz but there is a lot of potential for cabernet."

Sula produced its first bottle in 1999, a sauvignon blanc cultivated from French cuttings. The wine company, which has annual sales of US$8 million, is getting ready for its ninth harvest and will produce 1.5 million bottles this year. It expects 20% [annual] growth for the next six to seven years and is upgrading to Italian-made bottling machines to handle increased production.

Just like what you'd expect from a connoisseur of a well-balanced wine, Samant strikes a realistic note in the story. "Wine-drinking is not in the Indian culture so this is a totally new audience," he says. "Consumption is still minuscule. India drinks in a year what London does in a big party weekend. . There is so much to be done here."

For the complete story, go to http://business.timesonline.co.uk