The Hindu Business Line : `Wine Weekends' a big draw

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Mumbai Feb. 26 Wine is drawing weekend visitors to Nashik. This February, both the Taj Residency and the Mocha Backpackers Club have started offering `Wine Weekends' in association with Sula Wines.

The Taj offers a 3-days and 2-nights package costing Rs 17,000 per couple. The Backpackers offer 2-days and one-night for Rs 2,500 per person. Both were completely booked during the past two weekends.

"Wherever we have our hotels, it makes sense to give additional reasons for people to come," said Mr Rohinton Commissariat, Sales and Marketing Director for Taj Business Hotels. "They [Sula] are amongst the best wine guys so it made sense."

The Taj had blocked 10 rooms last weekend, all of which were booked. The weekends have been organised to take advantage of the grape harvesting season. Visitors get a tour of the Sula vineyard, enjoy a wine-tasting and a wine-picking session and get to crush grapes in the traditional way (with their feet) and a four-course dinner at the Taj that pairs wine with food.

Next year, the Taj plans to start earlier, in January, to take advantage of the entire harvesting season, which generally runs from January to March.

The Mocha package offers one night under the stars — visitors camp in tents at the vineyard — plus all the other activities at the vineyard that the Taj package offers. Food is taken care of by Sula, which can handle about 25 backpackers each weekend.

"The turnout is 100 per cent," said Mr Clyde Castellino, Mocha Assistant Manager - Training. "We have been overbooked. People who we couldn't accommodate in this batch will be in the next batch."

Mr Ajoy Shaw, winemaker for Sula, thinks the packages are a good way for people to get acquainted with wine, with some publicity for the winery thrown in.

"People can come and see how the grapes are getting picked and crushed," he said. "It is very good because there is a lot of word-of-mouth publicity that you get."

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