The Grape Escapade - Château Indage Part 2

First Look:

The anticipation level rose as soon as we entered Narayangaon. I was feeling super excited; it was just a matter of time before I would be seeing a winery for the first time in my life. But frankly speaking the look and feel of Narayangaon left me a bit confused. It was a small city spread on either side of the highway with no literal trace of any greenery leave alone the ambiance of a winery. Brick and mortar was all that greeted us. We were beginning to speculate of having taken a wrong turn somewhere, when we spotted the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in the backdrop faraway. Someone had told us in Narayangaon that  Château  Indage was within 3-4 kms and would come on the right. I had to keep a watch on the roadside signs as the super speeding trucks on the NH 50 makes it impossible for the one driving to shift his gaze from the road. If you, like me expect to see a lush green field of vineyard with an embossed Château Indage plaque welcoming you; in all probability you may actually blink and miss the Château Indage Winery which remains almost half hidden by the corner banyan tree.

We entered through the Main Gate and asked directions for the Guest house from the security at the gate. A gray gravel road snaked through the fresh green vineyard spread on either side of it. The ride was beautiful even at high noon when the sun was lashing down our backs. The Champagne Indage guesthouse is peacefully nestled some 500 meters within the verdant vineyards. We crossed the signature  Château and a cooling plant on the way.  Mr Jeetu our tour organizer met us at the Guest house premises and showed us to our room. The guest house comprises of some 7-8 rooms. There is another row house in the premises, but it’s reserved for the  Château Indage big-wigs and not meant for the visitors. We choose the room at the farthest end of the row, reason being it’s the only room that offered a panoramic view of landscape in front. The room was quite big for two people. It housed all the basic amenities (Sofa, Tea Table, TV, AC, wooden cupboard, side table, wicker chairs etc) and was tastefully done in a subtle color palette.  Don’t expect resort kind of facilities and you won’t be disappointed with the room for sure. And for 1500 a night, it’s a great deal for sure.

We didn’t have time to freshen up as the clock was already pointing to 12:45 pm. We left our belongings behind in the room and hurried to the Ivy Restaurant to register for the wine tour. We were famished after the long ride but had no other choice than to take the tour first and then think about food. The formality of checking in was quickly over and were all set for the wine tour. 

The Wine Tour:

It’s better to have your own vehicle (preferably a bike than a car, as it increases your mobility inside the winery) as the wine making plant is further inside the vineyard. The group reached the winery where we were split into two groups. By chance we were fortunate to fall into the other group which was not headed by Jeetu. I say fortunate because it gave us the chance to meet this very fine young wine-maker Abhishek Patil who was our guide for the tour. Patil hails from a traditional grape grower background and has studied wine-making in Australia and New Zealand. After the initial round of introductions and exchange of pleasantries we were whisked away into the world of huge vents, wine presses, steep metal ladders across metal ramps overlooking the enormous steel fermentation tanks (22,000-litre), array of fine oak barrels, state-of-art bottling, corking and labelling machines.

Patil is an amazing orator and a passionate wine-maker. One would never fail to notice the gleam of pride in his eyes, every time he says – “I am a wine maker”. I almost felt how insignificant it sounded being a mere software engineer in comparison to a wine-maker. Patil loves to entertain questions from his audience so be sure to ask him about anything that comes to your mind and my guarantee you will love the wine tour even more. He talked about the viticulture process in details. In the first room we came to know about the sorting of grapes, separating the grapes from the stems and leaves, and how the grape juice is extracted using a pneumatic press instead of a crushing machine to preserve the natural flavours better.

Next we moved onto the Fermentation chamber, where gigantic fermentation tanks were sitting. The air in the room was heavy with the smell of wine. We could feel the drop in temperature as we entered this room. We were told that there was no external cooling provided in the room, the chill in the air was caused by the wine filled steel tanks.  The Grape juice extracted in room one is sent to this chamber through enclosed vents to avoid any air contact and thus protecting the fresh extract from spoiling.

Grape juice is turned into wine by the process of "fermentation”. The juice of both white/green grapes and red grapes are nearly colorless. So how come red wines are “red”? This is because the red color is contained in the skin of the red grape. Thus, in the case of white wines, after pressing, the juice is separated immediately from the pulp of skins and stalks and fermentation commences. Whereas for making red (and rosé) wines, the juice is allowed to remain in contact with the crushed pulp for a while to add color, body and flavor to the 'must' (the juice to be fermented). By putting grape juice into the containers at the right temperature, yeast turns the sugar in the juice into wine and carbon dioxide. We also noticed huge oak barrels lined up by the side of the steel ones. Some wines are transferred to those oak barrels for ageing.”Barrel fermentation" as it’s called, takes longer perhaps around 6 weeks. The longer fermentation and use of wood contributes to the flavor (and usually expense) of the wine, alternatively, oak chippings may be added to the must to give it the same character. [Just an FYI for the curious, the oak barrels cost something around 40k, this info had immediately ticked off my mental calculator to approximately estimate the wealth carelessly lying around me in that very room and the idea to run away with one, just kidding :)]

During the fermentation period of red wines, the solid material floats to the top of the vat and forms a cap over the juice. Various methods are used to mix up the solid and liquid components, to achieve the required amount of extraction from the solids to the juice. When sufficient extraction has taken place, the juice is run off from under the cap, and the solids are then removed from the vat and pressed to extract the remaining juice which they contain.

Being practically a layman in this field this is the first time I came to know about the existence of a third kind of wine apart form the conventional white and red - the Rosé. A Rosé (French: rosé) is a type of wine that has some of the color typical of a red wine, but only enough to turn it rose pink. There are different processes followed across the globe to make rosé wine: skin contact, saignee, blending etc. Chateau Indage adopts the blending process to make a Rosé. We were told that the color of a rosé wine can range from just barely pink to dark and coppery.

Château Indage also produces sparkling wines better known as Champagne. Patil enlightened us with the nuances of Riddling (Rumauge in French) - the champagne making process . We learnt that a remuer is a highly skilled French workman whose job is to increase by a small degree the angle of the tilt in the bottles of sparkling wine every three-four days, so that the yeast 'lees' sediment formed from the fermentation process got collected very gradually into the neck of each bottle. At the end of the process the bottles would be vertically upturned, necks facing down and the sediments collected as a plug in their necks. The slower the tilting process the better it is for the clarity and quality of the sparkling wine These sediments are removed by a process known as disgorging. The bottles are placed upside down into a neck freezer at a temperature of minus 24 degree Celsius. An ice plug forms in the neck encapsulating the yeast deposit.When the crown seal is removed, the pressure in the bottle forces the plug of ice and lees from the bottle. The bottle is then topped up with a dosage liqueur. The bottle travels along a conveyor to the automatic corker and then on to the muselet wire applicator.Next, the bottle is shaken to mix in the dosage liqueur and sent through a bottle washer and dryer prior to being labelled and packaged.

We moved on to the next room which had the bottling and corking machine. It is a medium sized machine but  could perform a host of customized bottling actions . The room also had the labeling machine. Patil informed not all the wineries in the region had their own labeling machine hence other wine making companies would also come here to get their products labeled.

We had almost come to the end of the wine tour.  Patil walked us through the cellar once again and we stopped occasionally to feel the cold fermentation tanks, hold a bottle of sparkling wine or capture some of these moments in our cameras. Patil was generous enough to give me the cork of a champagne bottle as a keepsake. As I ran my finger over the brick red Château Indage emblem embossed on the coarse surface of the cork I could feel the effervescence of a regal sensation building up inside me, slowly transporting me to some unknown fantasy French Riviera.

The Tasting Room:

The tasting room lies at the entrance of the fermentation chamber and it constitutes the last leg of the Wine tour. We climbed the stairs to reach the wine tasting room, tastefully done to reflect an aura of elegance. It looked like a conference room with a bar. It was a rectangular room whose two walls were entirely made of glass and overlooked the huge fermentation tanks.The pastel colored front wall of the room had an array of glass shelves. The finest of Indage wines adorned the shelves resembling jewels on a king’s crown. The other wall hosts the picture of founder-owner Shamrao Chougule with his two sons Ranjit and Vikrant in a majestic pose.Patil introduced to us the Marquis de Pompadour, with which the story of the Narayangaon vineyards began and is one of the most popular product of Chateau Indage. By the time we’ve learnt about the Ivy Brut,Sauvignon Blanc, Chantilli Chardonnay and Shiraz, Chantilli Rose, Figueira Port and Indage Reserve Cabernet, I had almost  made up my mind to leave the software job and become a wine-maker.

I have read somewhere that people actually got to taste the wines in this room. But Patil informed that wine tasting was not a part of this tour and had to be taken up separately for a cost back at the resturant.In all probability wine tasting was made a part of the wine tour when celebs or journos visited the place.

Slightly disappointed at missing out wine tasting in this beautiful room, we walked out of the building along with Patil. One by one everyone left. Me and Ashish were the only two left chatting with Patil. We had already got ample insight of Patil’s sense of humor while on the tour, but now when we were engaged in a tête-à-tête it was really a delight to be able to experience Patil’s adventurous and humorous streak. When asked what else we could see in the day while we were at Narayangaon, he pointed to the tall hill behind the guesthouse and said, "Try climbing it you can see a beautiful sunset from there". We looked alternatively at the hill and Patil, trying to figure out whether it was a joke or he really wanted us to brave that only-a-mountain-goat-can-climb terrain. I asked whether it was safe to climb up the steep looking hill. He nodded and said in a but obvious tone that it was totally safe and then added that we may even be lucky to get some company. When asked what kind of company he was referring to, he asked a question in the most nonchalant tone – “Do you know why one of our famous brands was named as Tiger hill?” It was enough to spook Ashish and me and we exclaimed in unison – “Don’t tell us that tigers hover around on that hill and you want us to climb it?” After a moment of silence, Patil broke into his signature laughter and confirmed that fact that he was just kidding but added that it would be a real nice experience to see Narayangaon from such height if we can make it. 

We left the place after exchanging contact numbers and headed straight for the Ivy Restaurant. We were more than famished by then. The area from the winery building till the central serpentine path across the heart of the wine fields looked slightly arid and our accelerating bike left a dense trail of dust cloud behind us.  

To be Contd..

The Grape Escapade - Château Indage, Part 1

“Bohu din dhore, bohu krosh dure, bohu byay kori, bohu desh ghure,
Dekhite giyachhi parbotmala, dekhite giyachhi sindhu,
Dekha hoy nai chokkhu meliya,Ghar hote shudhu dui pa feliya,
Ekti dhaner shisher upore ekti shishir bindu"

(Trans: I traveled miles, for many a year, I spent a lot in lands afar,
I’ve gone to see the mountains, the oceans I’ve been to view.
But I haven’t seen with these eyes, just two steps from my home lies
On a sheaf of paddy grain, a glistening drop of dew)

I couldn’t help myself from quoting this beautiful Tagore poem to start off the blog. These lines have intrigued me for years. Isn’t it very true that we happen to miss out all the small wonderful things that lie right in front of our eyes only to travel across places in search of finding the big and magnificent? Be it a person or a place; the general belief is that the Western world has the crème de la crème of everything. But somehow I always feel that the bucolic charm of our country is unparallel to its Western counterparts. Manicured stuff never appeals to people who love unbridled beauty.

I believe I am a born traveler. You will never find me saying no to any travel plans, unless of course they involve only city sightseeing. Concrete is devoid of any green, and I thrive on green and nothing else. Green means nature and nature means liberation of the tired soul.

I was fortunate enough to get a life partner who is as much in love with nature and travelling as I am. Being the busy professionals that we are, it’s a luxury for us to find time and hit the road for a sojourn. The Valentines week gave us a perfect excuse to plan an impromptu weekend getaway. Since it was not preplanned it had to be a place which could be reached within a couple of hours and yet would be worth the travel and meet our basic requirement of being close to nature; not to mention which had easy on the pocket as well.

I had the perfect place to suite all these paraphernalia, only issue was to get Ashish (my hubby) to get to agree with the choice of location. This was the place I had always wanted to visit – a winery. Somehow the entire winemaking process and everything to do with wine, sounds so exquisite and tantalizing that the urge to be able to visit such a place grew with passing years. It was this rampant urge (pun intended) that made me search for a winery close to Pune, which might be even unheard by the localites of this place. Narayangaon seemed to be the perfect answer to my dream realization. Reviews confirmed that it met all our prerequisites so Ashish gave the nod without any fuss. We planned to start off by 7 am next morning. Early start would make a pleasant drive through the Ghats.

It was morning and the highly revolting alarm tone on Ashish’s cell woke us up sharp at 6. We both looked at each other with half an open eye each and decided we could push the starting time by half an hour to catch on to the ever elusive sleep for a few more minutes. And you guessed it right, those minutes stretched into an hour unknowingly and we found ourselves scurrying around the house at 8:45 trying to stuff in the last bit of those itty bitty things into our backpacks. By 9:30 we had reached Wakrewadi, which suggested we could still make it on time for the 11 O clock Wine Tour (Google Maps showed it was a 1 hr 25 mins drive). A quick breakfast of Medu-vada sambhar and steaming chai and we were on the scenic Pune- Nashik Highway (NH 50).

A couple of weeks ago we had driven to Mulshi and the drive was a total disappointment - barren fields, uneven potholed roads and scorching heat had made it a nightmare. Hence I was a bit skeptical in the beginning about this road trip as well, more because this was a longer drive. But the Pune-Nashik highway turned out to be au contraire. Zero potholes and stretches of straights and occasional bold curves make it an enjoyable experience. The drive was very scenic even in the last leg of winter; one can easily imagine how heavenly it would look during the fabled monsoons. You would be accompanied by the golden-green rolling plains unfolding before you in varied landscapes, hay fields stretching out leisurely, carpet of bright marigolds and mustard flowers, small brooks by the side of sleepy villages, an occasional “tapri” for the weary travelers to have a refreshing cuppa chai coupled with bun maska or vada pav and of course the ubiquitous vineyards luring you to surrender yourself to an intoxicating world – the Napa Valley of India.

Pune Nashik Highway (NH50)

The traffic was not that bad except the annoying six-seaters which never seem to abide by any traffic rules. We reached Rajgurunagar at exactly 11 am. Ashish needed to get the bike mirrors fixed hence we took a break of 20 minutes over there. The only other wine tour of the day was at 1 pm so we made quick mental calculation of distance remaining and speed required to reach there by that time. The best part of the route was that once you are on the Pune Nashik highway it’s a straight drive onto the winery, never for once also you need to take a diversion. So you don’t need to exercise your brain cells at all in keeping track of the route map. Just sit back and warm up to the inviting landscape.

In the Vineyard

To be contd...

- Barnali