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 Ajoy Shaw who was chosen as the ‘Best Winemaker in India’ at the delWine Excellence Awards held at Hotel Pullman Aerocity last year and who is enrolled in the Master of Wine programme, says ‘after working for around 18 years with Sula, I wanted to do something on my own and to advise different wineries.’ He is already consulting with two wineries-one in Karnataka and another in Maharashtra and hopes to add some more clients soon.
Karan Vasani, the red wine making specialist, has taken over with Neil Fernandez (specialist white wines) and Rupali Bhatnagar (specialist sparkling wines) reporting to him. Kerry Damsky will now reportedly spend more time at the winery up to perhaps 3 months in a year. He was in Nashik from May to July this year, according to sources and is expected back again in January.
A few other changes have also taken place and more are in the offing. Dr. Neeraj Agarwal who joined Sula Vineyards as General Manager - Vineyards Operations in 2003 and has been Sr. Vice President- Operations and Chief Viticulturist, had already stopped being a full time employee since April 1 and has been there as a consultant, working two days in a week. He is also working as a  consultant with the industry specialising in viticulture and lobbying with the government. Rakesh Jalan, Vice President of BIO (Bottled-in-Origin), the import arm of Sula had already left the company a couple of months ago.
A major change is expected soon at Sula in the Marketing team when a senior person from UK is expected to join. Without divulging any details, Nick Pringle, the new Chief Operating Officer (COO) concedes that changes are taking place in the company. ‘Changes indeed! All positive and for the future of the business; rest assured,’ he says succinctly with lucidity.
During my recent meeting with Robert Joseph, the well known journalist and a fellow judge (albeit a Panel President and Director of the competition) at Mundusvini in Germany, he opined that Sula was becoming more professional and corporatized in its working, a desirable feature for reaching the next phase.
Whatever the stated or implied objectives are, they will become clearer during the next few weeks when Rajeev Samant comes back to India from London and the ‘Globe in Glass’ event takes place by October-end/ November beginning (dates not announced yet). Follow these columns in delWine to know the latest.
Subhash Arora |