Mumbai's wine festival calendar for 2011
Wine festivals, a whole bunch of them happening mostly between October and February in and around Mumbai, is certainly news for the city's oenophiles, and a welcome addition to the fun calendar for 2011.
Bombay Presidency Radio Club Wine Festival: November
There’s nothing quite like the backdrop of India’s oldest hotel and most iconic monument, banked by the asphalt-colored Arabian sea, to be knocking back some of India’s best wine. And the Radio Club Wine festival, held annually since 2009 over a weekend in November, offers precisely that.
The outdoor event last year witnessed 15 Indian and, interestingly, 30 international wineries taking over the club’s pier to pour out their ferment for enthused visitors.
Music, either live or recorded is perpetually playing while smells from the food stalls pair perfectly.
As dusk turns to night, the mood gets palpably convivial making this wine festival a quintessential South Mumbai and a permanent fixture on the calendar.
157, Arthur Bunder Road, Colaba; Entry Rs 500
Kala Ghoda Wine Festival: February
This one just wrapped up on the weekend finale of the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival in February, which showcases and celebrates all things art and culture -- now including wine.
Hosted at the first-floor banquet hall of the restaurant Joss in the heart of the Kala Ghoda district, it runs for three days and enjoys the distinct advantage of a constant cool temperature with a grand view of a busy festival below.
The intelligent design of the event with wooden, military mess-style furniture placed in the center of the room allows guests to plonk themselves down to enjoy a generous pour and a gratis side of gourmet cheese and a constant stream of pizzas.
It may have a relatively modest line up of wineries (only nine participants) but a comfortable environ and genial atmosphere with the arts and culture festival boiling over in proximity gives this wine festival its own unique identity.
Joss Restaurant, 30, K Dubash Marg, Kala Ghoda, Fort; Entry Rs 300
Bandra Wine Festival: October
Bandra is an endearing precinct not simply for its hip and bohemian vibe but for the fact that it’s literally a delectable piece of a Goan town planted in Mumbai with many of the neighboring states’ residents permanently inhabiting Bandra.
And many are members of the Celebrate Bandra Trust which organizes the Bandra Wine Festival along with the Pune Gourmet Club.
The elements of food and music are present and the trees provide much needed shade through the noon before the evening.
The event last year saw noticeably larger participation as well as attendance and a lot of folks were seen, parrying away wine bottles, presumably to continue drinking elsewhere.
D'Monte Park, Perry Road, Bandra; Entry Rs 500
Sula Fest: February
Whether this 2,000-people fusion of music and wine can take credit for the others that followed in its wake is hard to ascertain but Sula Fest did break new, important ground for the wine industry on both sides of the spectrum.
Simply put, Sula Fest made wine accessible and the association with contemporary, indigenous rock music got people to happily do the three-hour drive from Mumbai.
In the course of its three years, Sula Fest has added stalls of jewelry, handicrafts and tarot readers and a substantial selection of cuisines from traditional Indian fare and continental to Lebanese and of course more wine.
But the live music concerts are inarguably the festival’s main draw. Sulafesters fill up their plastic glasses, park themselves in the vineyard's amphitheater while bands of the calibre of Pentagram, Tough on Tobacco and Midival Pundits do their best.
According to Sula’s main man Rajeev Samant, this year was a breakout edition for the wine fest with a response overwhelming enough to double the event duration to an entire weekend so that the extra demand can be accommodated.
If you like what you just read, then block that February weekend for next year.
Gat 36/2, Govardhan Village, off Gangapur-Savargaon Road, Nashik; Entry Rs 800
York Live: February
There's still time to catch York Live though, at the vineyard neighboring Sula on February 26.
The festival's first year boasts some pretty decent wine as well as bands.
So the basic elements are in place for York Live, a day-long music festival coupled with the producer’s wine, to kick off on a purple note.
York’s winery is in fact almost on the brink of the Gangapur lake and the view, gorgeous as it is, gets better at sunset as the winds blow in from the lakeside, cooling down the vines and the lawns where the event is due to take place.
The festival unfurls on February 26 at the height of the day -- 12.30 p.m. -- but things get even better from then as the featured bands include Shaa'ir n Func, Jalebee Cartel, newbees The Mavyns and international artist Rodney Branigan who can play two two guitars simultaneously.
Gat no. 15/2, Gangavarhe Village, Gangapur-Savargaon Road, Nashik; Entry Rs 800
Pune Wine Festival: December
Pune has long shaken off the tag of Mumbai’s sleepy urban cousin and has raced ahead with a vibrant stand-alone restaurant scene and the state’s first ever microbrewery.
A wine festival was inevitable.
Held in a pretty Rohi Villa Palace gardens in Koregaon Park and featuring quite a few lesser-known wine producers, the 2010 edition (its fourth) was without the three traditional wine power houses (Sula, Indage, Grover) and yet the number of participants had further risen -- 16 participants and more than 2,500 visitors over two days.
The event is organized by Monsoon Winds in association with the Pune Gourmet Club and considering the ease and speed with which Mumbaikars can slip in and out of Pune, the Pune Wine Festival makes for nothing if not a tempting winter weekend getaway.
Lane No 7, North Main Road, Meera Nagar Path, Koregaon Park, Pune; Entry Rs 400
