Less than a year ago Ekkachai Mahaguna, Managing Director of Canpac Beverages told TTO’s wine scribe Laurence Civil of his intention to import wines from the sub-continent into Thailand. One year on our grape connoisseur delivers his verdict and recommends a pairing with Indian food.

India  is currently  the most productive wine producing country in South and Southeast Asia. They started  making  sparkling  Indian wines for exports only in 1982 when they were known as  Champagne Vineyards. Being new to the wine business they needed advise on how to grow grapes and obtained technical collaboration from Champagne Technology of France. Champagne Indage was established in 1985 and became a listed public company two  years later in 1987. Teir role was  to produce and sell wines  to India’s emerging domestic wine consumers; within the group they  had  hotel  and  engineering  interests. The following year they launched their fagship sparkling wine “Marquise de Pompadour”.

In January 1997 the hotels and engineering side of the company were hived
of as  they  saw  the potential  to develop and expand a previously non-existent domestic wine market. Today the company has a 75% market share in  the premium  red and white wine markets and a virtual monopoly  in  the sparkling sector, where  their  interest  in  producing wines began.

The Indage Vineyards

The area they chose to plant grapes was on an unsuspecting piece of land in the sleepy hamlet  of Narayanaon  on  the  outskirts  of  Pune, 160 km’s southeast of Mumbai. Due to its lime rich  and  chalky  soil  combined  with  a  controlled microclimate  it was  seen  as  ideal  for cultivating grapes free from diseases to make extremely high quality wines.

Today  there  are mile  after mile  of  sprawling vineyards covering   some 2,500 hectares with 20 diferent grape varieties, both  international  and  domestic  grown  for  wine  production  and  137  in experimental  lots. They  are  located  on  the  19th northern  parallel  in  a  in a valley of the western ghats set at an altitude of 700-800 metres above sea level where they have an annual rain fall of 500-700mm. The vineyards are located near to the Kukadi Dam project, one of the largest irrigation grids in the state of Maharashta. Tey are situated on the Pune Nashik highway, 87 kms from Pune travelling in the direction of Nashik. Te vineyards enjoy a tropical climate and have two growing periods. Generally speaking there are three seasons; summer temperature can go as high as 39ºc at noon and their lowest is 7ºc at night in winter; the purely vegetative period is March/April to July/August;  a  productive  cycle with  heavy  pruning  in  September  and October. The grapes are harvested in February and March.

Wine Making Facilities

The company has a state-of-the-art technology manufacturing facility with
the  largest wine production  facility  in  India, with a capacity of 15 million
liters at Narayangaon and a bottling capacity of 15, 000 bottles per hour and
multiple manufacturing facilities across India, which ensures minimal lead
time and consistency in supplies across India. Champagne Indage Ltd. is the
frst sparkling wine producing and exporting company of India, exporting
to 69 countries across the globe. Teir wines range from the exquisite  like
Chantilli and Ivy to the famboyant Marquise de Pompadour. Tese wines
have won  several  awards  ranging  from  the  International Wine  and  Spirit
Competition (IWSC), held annually at London to Wine Style Asia from Sin-
gapore to national levels at the INDY’s

Indian Wines Available in Thailand

The Chantilly and Ivy label from Chateau Indage Estate Vineyards are im-
ported into Tailand “I decided to import wines from India for two reasons,”
says Ekkachai. “Firstly, no one else was importing these wines and secondly
we have seen a rise in interest in popular Indian culture and food. Te tim-
ing  just seemed right  to me. Te Chantilli  label  is available at branches of
Tesco Lotus with wines priced in the range of 499 baht per bottle. Te Ivy
label wine is priced slightly higher at around 599 baht a bottle and is avail-
able at branches of Villa Supermarket.

We are in the process of having the wines placed on various upscale fne din-
ing restaurants to ofer more choice to their customers.”

Rang Mahal at Rembrandt Hotel was the frst Indian restaurant to pour Indi-
an wines in Bangkok with the Chantilly, Chardonnay and Merlot. “As Indian
wines are a new concept,” says Shubhangi Bhaisare, Restaurant Manager, “we decided to go for the grape varieties our customers are most familiar with.

We chose merlot as  it’s  the most popular  red wine grape with  Indian and Thai wine lovers here in Bangkok. Chardonnay is a universally popular variety and I found this wine goes well with Indian food.”