When Grover Zampa Vineyards recently launched its new Insignia Shiraz 2014 at Rs 5,000 for a magnum (1.5-litre bottle), people sat up and took notice.
It's not just that Insignia is now the most expensive Indian wine or that the launch (at the winery, outside Bengaluru) featured some of India's top wine people - attendees included Sonal Holland, India's first Master of Wine, Reva Singh of Sommelier India magazine, Subhash Arora of the Indian Wine Academy and, of course, Ravi Vishwanathan, the Singapore-based investor in Grover who came down from Paris just of the event. Something like this is about making a statement to the world and saying "we're back". It displays the growing confidence of the company to mix it up with industry leader Sula and take the high ground in terms of product positioning and image.
Insignia is a "single vineyard estate bottled" Shiraz that claims to have been matured in oak casks for 24 months. Only 300 bottles of this limited-edition wine have been produced, of which 100 are reported to have been shipped off to Vishwanathan in Singapore, leaving only 200 (magnum) bottles for sale in Bengaluru.
This is only the second magnum Indian still wine, the other being Krsma's Cabernet Sauvignon, which retails in Bengaluru for Rs 3,250. Industry leader Sula has been marketing a magnum Sula Brut Methode Traditionalle (that is, with the tirage done in-bottle) for some years now - it is currently priced at Rs 2,075, which now seems a steal, and is likely to be increased for "the season".
Of course, the far older (1977) Insignia wine is from the iconic Joseph Phelps winery in Napa, California -its 2013 vintage is rated at 93 points by Wine Spectator, which quotes a release price of $250. It is possible there will be some trademark issues raised by that producer since the Grover Insignia label has many similarities.
But is the Grover Insignia worth the price?
To my mind, the wine appeared to be still quite young and I think it will benefit from at least one year (and possibly more) of bottle ageing. A comparison with the other reserve wines from the Grover portfolio (the Vijay Amritraj Collection red and the La Reserve red) is revealing, perhaps because the other wines are Cabernet-Shiraz blends, whereas the Insignia is a single-varietal Shiraz. The others have more body and punch, and this wine is medium-bodied, with latent fruit and varietal characteristics.
The company's tasting notes indicate that "layers of complexity lead to fruit-berries, coffee, and chocolate, with a hint of black pepper, with some earthiness, ripe tannins and oak fuse into a long and smooth finish".
Be that as it may, I've snapped up one bottle of this limited-edition wine and stored it away in a cool, dry place, to be broached perhaps next Diwali.
Alok Chandra is a Bengaluru-based wine consultant