Photos by :: Adil Arora
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| Mumbaai Dreamz-Abhijit Kabir,Violet d'Souza, Sumedh S mandla |
Owned by Abhijit Kabir and Violet d’Souza, the Maharashtra winery has been producing Indus brand of wines since 2007. In an exclusive chat with delWine in Mumbai, Violet said, ‘we wanted to bring the wine drinking culture to the common man and we had the fighting spirit of the man from Mumbai in mind when we chose the name of the label and the design which has been conceptualized by Kabeer, with a bus, taxi and the local train chosen for each of the three labels.
‘We wanted to immortalize the city and immortalize the city and freeze her images which are fast changing its colours and character.’ The attractive labels designed by Nkhil Purohit, depict shades of Mumbai at different hours. The screw-capped bottles have also changed their colour from the typical green to the earthy brown.
Emphasising the masoclimate of the area, which he passionately describes as ‘ Igatpuri Clime’, Kabeer added that lower cost has been achieved by mixing international grapes with local varieties. Reluctant to disclose the blend, Violet said,’ our winemaker does not like to share the blend even with us.’
Terroir has been producing award winning wines labelled as Indus and ‘two of our wines from the very first vintage won an award at the India Wine Challenge,’ says Kabir proudly.
The company tied up with Aspri India Pvt Ltd in April this year for exclusive marketing of their products for local market as well as export. Says Sumedh Singh Mandla, CEO of the Wine Division of ASPL, ‘ we plan to cover a wider market across India at different price levels and apart from the urban wine connoisseurs, we want to tap this potential market – the common man’. Quite pleased with the performance of the wine released only a couple of days ago in the Maharashtra market, he said, ‘we sold 35 cases on the first day-this is very encouraging.’ He also said that the company plans to enter Delhi and several other markets, especially the north-eastern states where the demand is substantial.
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| Mumbaai Dreamz- Rose, Red and White |
All the three wines tasted were clean, fruity and simple, with the Rosé ahead of the other two in flavour and aroma, with the right shade of sweetness, tannins and balance making it an easy choice with or without meals. ‘ At a common tasting we had with a group yesterday, the interesting thing was that the opinion was almost equally divided as the top favourite. This means that we can expect a deeper penetration in the segment we are targeting.’
Terroir has six labels currently, Chenin Blanc (Rs.420), Sauvignon Blanc, Rosé and Cab-Shiraz (Rs.540), Cabernet (Rs.638) and Moksha, a premium Shiraz costing( Rs.840.)., All the three variants of Mumbaai Dreamz sell for Rs.295 in Maharashtra..
Recovering from the sting of recession and terrorism, Terroir India is targeting the annual sale of 20,000 cases a year of Indus and Mumbaai Dreamz with the exclusive help of Aspri Spirits which desperately needs to add Wine to its name, indicating the forays it has made into the imported and now Indian wines.
Terroir uses the services of the Australian flying vine doctor, Dr. Richard Smart. John Worontshack, the UK –based Australian winemaker and consultant helps them with winemaking.
Subhash Arora |