The wines of Grover Zampa

Grover Zampa is one of the pioneers of modern Indian winemaking and the second-largest winery in India. It has vineyards and wineries in two regions: the Nandi Hills near Bangalore in the state of Karnataka, and the Nashik Valley in Maharashtra, north-east of Mumbai. Grover Zampa works mainly with French grape varieties. Since 1995, the renowned Bordeaux oenologist Michel Rolland has advised the winery, longer than any other foreign consultant in India.

Check out our 7 wines made by Grover Zampa

The story begins with Kanwal Grover, a businessman who from the 1960s imported French technical equipment for India's defence and space programmes. On his trips to France he became fascinated by French gastronomy and wine. He visited countless vineyards and eventually persuaded Georges Vesselle, technical director of the Champagne house Mumm, to help him set up a winery of his own in India.

Together they travelled the country in search of the ideal location and ended up in the Nandi Hills, north of Bangalore, where the first vines were planted in the late 1980s. Grover and Vesselle spent years experimenting with 34 grape varieties at ten different sites before the first wine came onto the market in the early 1990s.

When Vesselle retired, Michel Rolland was brought in in 1995. Three years later Grover launched his top wine La Réserve, a red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. For a long time the company was a family business: son Kapil Grover was chairman for many years, and granddaughter Karishma Grover, trained at UC Davis in California, was responsible for winemaking.

In 2012, Grover Vineyards merged with Vallée de Vin, a smaller winery from Nashik founded in 2006 by Ravi Jain and Neeraj Deorah, which sold its wines under the Zampa name. This created Grover Zampa. In 2019 the company acquired the Indian wineries Charosa, Four Seasons and Myra, each of which kept its own identity. Grover Zampa now exports to more than eighteen countries.

The Nandi Hills winery lies in a valley some 40 kilometres north of Bangalore. Thanks to the altitude, which in the region ranges from 920 to almost 1,500 metres, the climate is temperate, with cool summers and mild winters. The soil is red loam that holds moisture well, but irrigation is still needed because it only rains during the monsoon. The Nandi Hills are planted mainly with the white grapes Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier and the red grapes Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Tempranillo. There are also smaller amounts of Muscat, Zinfandel, Cabernet Franc and even a few Georgian varieties, as a trial.

The Nashik winery sits on a hill with sandy, reddish-brown soil. The estate itself is only about 5 hectares, planted with Viognier, Shiraz, Tempranillo and Grenache. The winery is built into the slope, so that grapes and wine can be moved by gravity.

In total, Grover Zampa works with around 200 hectares of vineyards. Most of them belong to some 125 contract growers, who are supported by the winery's team. Over the years, yields per hectare have been reduced considerably to improve the quality of the wine. Because India is so close to the equator, the growing season differs from that in Europe: the harvest runs from January to March.

Work in the cellar is precise. The grapes are chilled and hand-sorted. White wines ferment slowly at low temperatures, while red wines are given a long maceration after fermentation. The best reds mature in French oak barrels. The winery is also experimenting with concrete tanks, amphorae and large foudres. Both sites have a visitor centre. In the Nandi Hills, visitors can take a guided tour, taste the wines and eat in the restaurant. We currently have seven wines from Grover Zampa in our range. You can view all our wines from Grover Zampa here.

If you want to know more about this winery, here you will find the link to the website of Grover Zampa.