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Nashik steadily gaining recognition as international wine destination
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Wednesday, 15 February, 2017, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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Nashik, one of Maharashtra’s leading industrial towns and India’s grape capital, is slowly gaining recognition as India’s wine capital and an international wine destination at par with Italy’s Tuscany, Portugal’s Alentejo and France’s Rhone Valley. This is being done to grab footfalls of foreign tourists this harvest season.
The town produces various blends of wines. An area of about 1.75 lakh hectares is under grape cultivation. This accounts for nearly 70 per cent of the total grape cultivation area in the state. About 4,000 acres of land are being used to cultivate grape wine varieties.
It is estimated that Nashik produces 15 lakh metric tonnes of grapes, which ensures a steady supply of grapes for wine production and the rising taste for authentic Nashik wines among tourists and consumers.
The regular grape harvesting season is currently underway, and a number of vineyards have geared up to take advantage of it. The owners of these vineyards have chalked out plans, including increasing the area under grape cultivation, raising the quality of the fruit, enhancing its production to produce wine varieties and producing different blends of wines.
Soma Vine Village
Soma Vine Village, one of Nashik’s leading and fastest-growing vineyards, planned to target about 2,000 foreign and 18,000 domestic tourists to visit its vineyard this harvesting season - its fourth.
Pradeep Pachpatil, its chairman and managing director, stated that during the year, it expects about 40,000 tourists.
Among these, he expected about 5,000 foreign and 35,000 domestic tourists to visit the vineyard between February and March.
Pachpatil said, “With its sublime, authentic and indigenous flavours, Nashik’s wines are attracts tourists worldwide.”
“The trend we have been witnessing this year is the excitement of foreign and domestic tourists to participate in the harvesting season,” he added.
“Thousands of tourists visit Soma Vine Village every year. We are receiving many enquiries from foreign and domestic tourists checking about the harvest season,” Pachpatil stated.
He added, “Besides wine tasting, they want to experience the excitement of the harvest season. Hence we expect a huge spurt in the number of tourists, particularly during the harvest time.”
“The trend will increase in the forthcoming years. Nashik has truly come up as India’s first wine capital,” Pachpatil said.
Nashik is becoming a hot wine tourist destination for Mumbaikars, who are preferring to spend their weekends at the vineyards.
The proximity to Mumbai and excitement for wine tasting and tourism in vineyards are the reasons for the spurt in the number of tourists visiting Nashik.
The town’s wine regions have a number of tourist attractions, including visits to wineries, walks through vineyards, wine tasting and food and wine matching classes.
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