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August 2011 - Posts
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 The Fetzer vineyards have been developed out of the Sundial Ranch in the town of
Hopland, Mendocino, California USA. Expansion saw the purchase of the adjacent
Valley Oaks ranch which came with an organic garden; this prompted the spread of
organic growths and production methods. This Cabernet wine is named in honour of
that ranch.
Fetzer Wineries maintain that sustainability is a way of life and the
cornerstone of the way business is done; it has made a commitment to conduct
business in an environmentally and socially responsible way and has continued to
build on that commitment till today.
All of the 1,700 farmed acres are certified organic through California Certified
Organic Farmers (CCOF). The vineyards are farmed without the use of pesticides,
herbicides, or chemical fertilizers. Fetzer also plays a leading role in the
California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance (CSWA), sharing sustainable growing
practices with over 1,300 growers and wineries.
Fetzer adorns a gentle, pleasing aroma with plenty of black fruit (cherries,
blackberries and blackcurrant and plumy jam) pleasantly smooth and well balanced
having a very mild oak cast that lingers satisfyingly on the palate after
swallowing and leaving distinct but subtle hint of oak in the taste.
The wine when poured has a full-bodied dark ruby red (deep claret) colour when
examined against a strong light leaving behind just a small amount of thin
sediment in the bottle.
The white wines from Fetzer are free of any animal products and are vegan
friendly. However the red wines use organic egg whites in the fining process
making them suitable for lacto-ovo vegetarians but not vegans.
Fetzer is a winery dedicated to promoting sustainability where it can, from
energy conservation and packaging reduction to printing on recycled paper. The
goal is not only for the customers to be able to taste the difference but to
also feel good about what they are drinking. Fetzer has switched to lighter
weight paper for the Valley Oaks wine labels and has eliminated foil stamping,
as a result reducing the use of virgin materials along with transportation
costs. In addition, packaging materials are returned to the suppliers so they
can be reused or recycled.
Process wastewater from bottling, barreling, and cellar operations is treated
onsite. After treatment, this water is used for irrigation on the winery's
organically farmed vineyards allowing us to reuse almost 20 MG of water a year.
Fetzer has reduced water usage by 24 per cent or 8 million gallons annually.
Fetzer wine bottles use lightweight glass, which reduces their carbon footprint
by 14 per cent. Annually, the new bottles reduces glass usage by 16 per cent
(more than 2,100 tons) Fetzer utilises a range of cover crops and promotes
biodiversity in the vineyards and landscape.
In cost-sharing collaborations with government agencies, Fetzer undertook
conservation and restoration efforts of Dooley and McNab Creeks, two watersheds
vital to the health of our winegrowing region.
Fetzer’s bottling facility is one of the wine industry’s largest solar array,
which is capable of generating 1.1MM kilowatt hours of clean energy.
Fetzer’s bottling facility is one of the wine industry’s largest solar array,
which is capable of generating 1.1MM kilowatt hours of clean energy.
Photovoltaics provide 75 per cent of the power used in the Administration
Building, in conjunction with 3 Phases Energy Services.
Fetzer Vineyards will place the wine industry's largest solar array atop its
winery bottling facility in Hopland to generate 1.1 million kilowatt hours of
clean electricity annually. This is enough to offset more than 960,000 pounds of
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the equivalent of taking approximately 80 cars
off the road for a year or planting 130 acres of trees With the use of biodiesel
fuel in many of their trucks and tractors Fetzer have reduced carbon dioxide
emissions by about four metric tons a year. Fetzer is the first and only winery
to buy 100% Green Power.
They won the 2009 Waste Reductions Award Program from California Integrated
Waste Management Board and many more environmental accolades can be found on
their website.
Fetzer Wine’s are owned by the Brown-Forman Corporation. This conglomerate also
owns other legendry labels like Jack Daniel's Bourbon, Korbel Champagne,
Finlandia Vodka which are available in India.
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Delhi: Cremebrew L'Otel Cafe (Modified from Cremebrew Le Cafe) has recently
modified its facilities by adding stylishly served Wine by Glass to its existing cafe menu. "The Wine by Glass has been
added by importing from Santa Barbara California, a six bottle (4 White
and 2 Red) Winekeeper backbar system, which will add elegant drink menu
along with beer on the tap. We have spruced up the entire setting by
adding tiffany lamps, purple marble tops on tables and converting the Le
Cafe to L'Otel Cafe. The idea is to make it into a hotel style cafe,
outside a hotel." Says Bobby Medirata (Director). "Because we can
keep the wine in perfect temperature and de-oxidized using Winekeeper,
we can keep opened bottles fresh for longer periods until finshed, and a
cafe is certainly a great place to chill out over a glass of white
wine, not just coffee", he adds. The food menu is set well to go with
beer and wine like Mexican rolls of tacos and tortillas, and cheesy
chips (french fries with melt cheese). More: Indian PR Wire
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Two West Midlands entrepreneurs are on a mission to convert the world
to Indian wine – and are even sending it over The Channel to beat the
French at their own game.
Alok Mathur and Melvin D’Souza, who run Soul Tree Wine, are
convinced the nascent Indian wine industry could soon compete on an
international stage with more traditional wine-producing countries.
The Coventry-based pair, who are moving the firm to Birmingham next
month, are initially focusing their efforts on wines that go well with
spicy foods.
For the past year they have been busy building up a network of
Indian restaurants around the UK that stock wine grown in the Nasik
region of India.
Since January the firm has added another 100 Indian restaurants as
well as hotels and pubs to its network, mainly in the Midlands and the
South, and has sold a total of 8,000 bottles to date.
But Soul Tree is adamant it doesn’t want to be confined to the UK’s Indian restaurant sector.
It has just appointed distributors in Ireland and France – and sees
no reason Indian wine can’t overcome the famous French snobbery for
their own viticulture.
“The first shipment is on its way so I will be able to tell you in about six weeks time,” said Mr Mathur.
More: Birmingham Post
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Aspri Spirits Pvt Ltd, distributor and importer of fine beverages, has
introduced a new range of wines from SoGrape group at the Grand Hyatt
Mumbai recently. The new range of wines include red and white varieties
from Marlborough, New Zealand, Vinho Verde, Portugal, Duoro, Portugal,
Mendoza, Argentina and Cachoapal Valley, Chile. More: Hospitality Biz
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Indian wines, once a domain of Maharashtra is now spreading to all parts of
India including N.E.
India. A report.
 It’s a sign that things are still promising for the Indian wine industry. A
joint venture between E.C. Oxenham & CY Ltd, Mauritius, and Indian
promoters-Nirvana Biosys - has recently set up a winery, the first in North
India in Haryana on the NH-8 to Jaipur.
The modern winery has been set up on two acres of land with a capacity of 1
million litres per annum, expandable to 5 million litres per annum.
E.C. Oxenham & CY has a 75 year heritage of wine making with a French lineage
and sees the venture as a means to capitalise the opportunities in the fast
growing wine market segment in India. Under the joint venture, all products and
brands in the E.C. Oxenham portfolio would be available to Nirvana Biosys for
production and marketing under the foreign partner’s supervision. The JV will be
introducing a range of red, white, sparkling, port, lychee and mango wines for
Indian and international markets.
The JV has used high quality production equipment which includes an Italian
automatic bottling plant manufactured by Bertolaso, with a capacity of 4500
bottles per hour.
"Today India is one of the fastest growing markets and we are keen in
establishing our presence here. This new joint venture represents an opportunity
to combine our talents and expertise with Nirvana Biosys’ market experience to
successfully satisfy the needs of the Indian marketplace,” said wine maker Brian
Oxenham, E.C. Oxenham & CY Ltd
Wine consumption in India has been picking up at a rapid pace. Delhi, Bengaluru
and Mumbai are the markets that are taking to wines. However, one can see sales
in smaller places like Chandigarh as well. “This joint venture will enable us to
produce and deliver international quality wines with grape juice from France,
Italy, South Africa and other grape producing regions of the world,” said
M.K.
Rustagi, Joint Managing Director, Nirvana Biosys.
According to him, the unique process facilitated by Oxenham will enable the
company to retain the true taste, aroma and flavour of these distinctive grapes
and also overcome the challenges of long distance transportation at high
temperature, which can adversely impact the quality of wine.
Patrick Oxenham, an Oenologist from Dijon University of France who has been
crafting wines for over 40 years is the wine maker. At Nirvana, apart from
premium grape wines, there is in its portfolio the unique exotic lychee and
mango Wines which will be launched soon for the first time in India.
Commenting on the present challenges facing the Indian wine market Rustagi
remains confident that it is a growing wine market and has a lot of potential.
Currently, the Indian market is around 9 ml per capita per year on wine
consumption as against 9 liters of the US and 4 liters of China.
“These numbers show that there is a huge potential in the Indian market. Besides
that, there are challenges in terms of awareness and the consumption patterns.
But today, many companies are helping the market grow at a faster pace by
creating awareness on the medical benefits of moderate wine consumption,”
remarked Rustagi. This trend is actually helping in converting hard liquor
drinkers into wine drinkers.
The company’s plant is located at Haryana’s Bawal Industrial area, about 90 kms
from Delhi.
The estate houses a landscaped open air wine tasting garden as well as indoor
tasting lounge on the first floor, which overlooks the garden on one side and
the production facilities on the other. “This is the first ever state-of-the-art
winery for the North India region,” said Rustagi.
With the joint venture he believes the firm will spearhead the assortment of
international quality wines at a very competitive price point. “The first
product that we have introduced in the market is our premium brand - Luca, under
which we have two sub-brands - Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc. Both
these products are most subtle and most rejuvenating options for consumers.
These are two of our rich brands to start with.”
The company is also in the process of further expanding its portfolio with a
wide range of offerings with specific products catering to different customer
segments. “We are targeting the youngsters and the starters through our Zoya
brand and for ladies we have She Rose Sparkling wine and also a range of wines
with premium exotic tastes,” Rustagi said.
Nirvana Biosys is the first Indian wine making company to introduce Natural
Lychee and Mango wines, which are certainly going to create a niche. Initially,
they are focusing on the northern part of the country and have already made the
product available in Haryana, Delhi and UP. They will soon be launching products
in Chandigarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and West Bengal.
This will be followed by a product roll out in states like Andhra Pradesh and
Goa. Their strategy is to cover the entire country in phased manner.
Amitabh Joshi
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After establishing strong hold on the alcohol retail
segment in Mumbai, Living Liquidz, the boutique liquor retailer has got into
wine production. The company launched its own wine label MOKSSH, recently. There
are six varietals of MOKSSH –Syrah, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay,
Cabernet Sauvignon and Blush available in the market. The wines are made in a
32,000 sq. ft, state-of-the art winery in Nashik with Italian style machinery.
Moksh Sani, Managing Director, Living Liquidz said at this occasion, “We have
been in the retail business for a very long time and understand our customers’
demands. With Living Liquidz we have made liquor buying an experience for all,
and now with launch of Mokssh we are just carrying forward our mission of making
wines affordable, accessible and approachable.” Mokssh for me is “a wine of this
earth, made by heart”.
Initially Mokssh Wine will be available exclusively in
Living Liquidz Stores, but later will be available in all Star hotels and
Restaurants.
Guest of Honour Sanjay Dutt commented, “I am happy to be a
part of this new product launch for MOKSSH; these wines are smooth, robust and
sweet! Something for everyone. I wish Moksh Sani all the very best for the
future.” Interestingly the wine is bottled by Vintage Wines Ltd which produces
the famous Reveilo wines. Though there is a price difference between Mokssh and
Reveilo brands the fact that they share the same winery could work as an
advantage for Living Liquidz.
In an interaction with Ambrosia,
Kiran Patil of Vintage Wines said, “We are happy to be
associated with the wine brand MOKSSH and we do not take it as a competition to
our own brand as the positioning and price points are different.”
Mokssh Blush
This is a luscious pink colour wine with a bouquet of fresh
strawberries, cherries and spice. This delightful wine is spirited and playful
with lively acidity, finely textured tannins and a sweet supple finish.
It’s priced at `.474/- (750 ml).
Recommended with breaded mushrooms, light cheeses and
veggie cakes.
deally served at 8˚ – 10˚C.
Mokssh Syrah
Brilliant ruby red in colour, this wine has strong aromas
of black cherry and green pepper followed by spice and Flintstone notes. The
tannins are soft and complex, which give this wine depth and a good finish. .
It’s priced at ` 498/- (750 ml).
Recommended with pastas, red meat, barbeque and spicy food.
Ideally served at 16˚ – 18˚C
Mokssh Cabernet Sauvignon
An extremely powerful wine with layers of plum, red
currants and pepper. The tannins are sweet and the finish is long and
persistent. The firm structure and defined acidity gives an appealing mouth
feel. .
It’s priced at `.600/- (750 ml).
Recommended with sauced meat, aged cheese, heavy soups,
grilled steak and lamb chops.
Ideally served at 16˚ – 18˚C
curtesouy
http://www.ambrosiaindia.com
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