Sula Vineyards likely to hit new record sales this year

Domestic wine maker Sula Vineyards Wednesday said sales are expected to cross 1 million cases this year, surpassing the 2018 record, on account of higher crushing of grapes.

The Nashik-based company has crushed over 9,000 tonnes of wine grapes in the current year, 50 per cent higher than the previous year's level, it said.

"This was possible due to a decent monsoon and following conducive weather conditions for cultivating wine grapes. These figures are expected to help Sula cross its own record-breaking 2018 sales, over 1 million cases world-wide," the company said in a statement.

It has crushed 55 per cent of red variety grapes and rest white grapes. Most of the grapes are crushed and processed in Nashik and southern parts of Maharashtra, although some harvesting and crushing are also done in Karnataka, the company's senior vice president and chief winemaker Karan Vasani said.

Grape growing conditions were positive in 2019, however, its harvest was slightly delayed. It started from mid-December and went on till the first week of April, he added.

Sula Vineyards Founder and CEO Rajeev Samant said there is a lot of waste generated by the traditional production and crushing process, but the company uses every part of the grape from seed to skin.

After grape juice is extracted, the seeds are used to make grape seed oil and the remaining mulch becomes compost for our wines, he added.

The company sells wine under brand Sula across the country and Kadu in Karnataka.