Uncorking success in a Nashik vineyard

Ashwin Rodrigues is as much at home crunching numbers as he is identifying different kinds of wines. A chartered accountant by training, Ashwin threw up an investment banking career in Sydney, returned home to become a vintner.

Rodrigues discovered a fascination for wines. “The diversity of the wine comes from the different types of grapes, where they are grown, and in what manner,” he says. 

“People advised me against it, with most saying it is a difficult business the world over,”' says the Mumbai born owner of Good Drop Wine Cellars. “I was told, if you want to make a million bucks in the wine industry, start off with a billion. I didn’t have that kind of money,” chuckles Rodrigues, “though my job in Australia was paying good money.”'

Initial years Born into a family that has an export business of minerals and chemicals, Rodrigues says, “I went to Australia to work as a CA, and was thinking of migrating there. Only when I started researching and came across many local wines, I decided to chart my own path.”

In 2007, he threw caution to the winds and decided to become a vintner to tap the huge potential in the Indian market. Noting Australian citizens’ penchant for local wines, Rodrigues says his “natural reaction was to first import wines from Australia to India. I realised importing would be a tough call, due to the high duties. I decided to do the next best thing and make wine.” 

Adelaide’s Barossa Valley, in South Australia, one of the premium wine making regions in the world, was where Rodrigues “got his hands dirty, working on a daily wage basis, from the ground level,” learning all about wine making and its many intricate flavourings.

Right from pruning vines, scrubbing tanks, to filling barrels, Rodrigues learnt the ropes in Australia, first as a Cellar Hand at the Yalumba Wine Co, then as Assistant Winemaker at Tin Barn Vineyards, and finally as a Winemaker at the Renaissance Winery.

After working at three wineries, Rodrigues shifted to California, the US, and did a harvest there, before returning to India in 2009.

Joining a wine company in Nashik, the wine bowl of India, for a year, to learn the nitty-gritty, Rodrigues identified a market in affordable sparkling wines, inspired by Italian bubblies like Prosecco and Asti.

He then went on to make wines in a rented winery in Nashik for two years, before branching out on his own. “The initial funding was tough. I had a little nest egg saved from my CA days in Australia,” says the 41-year-old.

Own merit The most promising result of the entire exercise was the Rio wine brand from Good Drop Wine Cellars, which hit the market early 2013. Currently, the flagship brand Rio, is available only in Maharashtra and Goa.

“Rio is an entry level wine. It is available only in pints at ₹100-120. It is a carbonated wine, what I call a fizzy wine with forced carbonation, and is available in red, pink and white,” says Rodrigues. Yet another label is Casa Blanca, a sparkling wine, retailing at ₹850, a white and a rose wine.

Rodrigues has been toiling away in Nashik, for the last five years. He insists there is a long way to go for his company, since wine consumption is less than 1 per cent of the alcoholic beverage market in the country. 

“In Mumbai, wine is just 2 per cent of the alcoholic beverage pie. Annually, beer rakes in ₹1,000 crore, whisky ₹1,000 crore and other spirits are around ₹3,000 crore in revenue. In the midst of this, wine would be about ₹50 crore in Mumbai annually, while imported is another ₹10 crore,’’ he adds.

Marketing cost Rodrigues insists that marketing expenses “are what take a major toll. Though there is a huge potential market, in reality, it takes a lot of resources,’’ he says.

The winemaker is familiar with the best grapes grown in the region. “Sangvi, Dindori and Pimpalgaon all in Nashik, grow the best grapes. The quality is very good,” he insists, adding: “In table grapes, the emphasis is on harvesting a larger crop, while in wine grapes, it is just the opposite. The smaller the crop, the better. We want concentration of flavour.”

Rodrigues says his firm is past Phase 1, which is to establish the brand. “I earn around ₹60 lakh a month, and by the financial year 2015-16, it should be ₹12 crore a year based on the existing capacity,” he adds. 

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