Sunday, August 26, 2012

Nashik - The Sula Vineyards


I decided to spend my first Sunday in Dhulia visiting Nasik. This is because, there is not very much to do in Dhulia, and I didn’t fancy spending a whole day in my room. Had the room possessed cooking facilities and had I possessed several packets of Maggi, I might have made a different decision. Nah, not really.
At any event, my body (as is frequently the case these days) refused to correspond with the intentions of my brain and I woke up rather late at around 8.30am. As a result, I could set off only at 10am to Nasik. Slightly worried, I checked with Ginger Hotel if they had rooms available for the night and they did. If it got too late, at least I had a place to stay.
Nothing very much was planned about this Nasik visit. I wanted to go to Sula and then to visit areas related to my birth and where my Mom and Grandparents used to stay because, you see, Nasik is my birthplace. Things didn’t go quite smoothly at first though. Our bus broke down somewhere near Chanvad and a bunch of us stragglers to Nasik waited on the highway till the next bus came. This was thankfully quite soon – but it already looked like I would need that room in Ginger. The bus ride though quite picturesque, seemed endless and after an eternity, we pulled into Thakkar Bazaar bus stand, Nasik. 



I asked an auto to take me to Sula – which turned out to be quite an expensive affair. Sula Vineyards is located near Gangapur village, quite away from the highway – so taking a bus is also not much of an option. The vineyards are pretty much meant for those with independent vehicles – the staff at Sula doesn’t even pretend to cater to those who don’t possess their own car or bike. I called them and asked them if they arranged for cabs to drop people back to the city and they quite happily said no. I almost gave up going there at that point but the auto driver I had engaged said he would wait it out and bring me back. The entire endeavor cost me 700 bucks. Considering later on I managed to go to Daulatabad, Ellora and Shri Grhineshwar in that amount, I realize now that I got ripped off.

All my consternation at the unsatisfactory travel experiences and Sula’s lack of help though disappeared when I arrived there. The sight of the lush green vineyards surround by hills and the European villa style construction that Sula had employed to house their wine making enterprises and restaurants revived me instantly. It was beautiful, a slice of France in India, as I wrote to my Grandfather in an email. As the auto pulled up to the lobby, jazz music played from overhead speakers. After a week in Dhulia, I was delighted to be in such cosmopolitan settings again.


Apologies - the photo isn't very good.

Sula has 2 restaurants and a wine tasting lounge. One of the restaurants, happily for me, was Little Italy. After registering myself for a guided tour of the wine making machinery (seems wrong to call it factory. I am sure there is a word for it), I headed to Little Italy and ordered one of my two usuals. I much prefer their Pasta 4 Stagioni but the dish I ordered was also quite wonderful. The restaurant is beautifully laid out like an Italian café, largely open air with a slate roof, plaster walls with wall creepers and wrought iron lamps. There were some extremely noisy children but for once, they didn’t bother me too much. I ordered a glass of Sula white (I forget the exact name) and read my Bob Dylan book. Dylan’s writing style in this book and he own descriptions of being on the move, constantly in flux and discovering himself through new places made me feel even more like a hobo and I loved it.
I then went to the wine tour which was interesting, but not very exciting as no wine was being produced at the moment (it was not grape season). Even the bottling plant wasn’t active as it was a Sunday. The tour was fun though. Probably the best part was the barrel room, a gigantic room in which the wine was stored in Oak barrels to mature. We then had a tasting session where the poor guide attempted to explain the basics of wine tasting to a largely cynical audience with a fairly short attention span. There were some ridiculously loud kids during this session also and I really wished they could have been banned from the place. Ah well.

After purchasing some wine and spending half an hour savoring some sparkling wine at The Tasting Room, a lovely open aired balcony which overlooked the vineyards, I called my trusty auto driver and headed to College Road for the latter part of my visit.


1 comment:

  1. For some reason i missed this. Wine and Nasik...hmm interesting combo. and college road brings back lots of memories. not clear why kids are allowed on a wine tour. Seems the wrong message to be giving them LOLOLO. Keep writing! its loads of fun reading.

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