Come Jan, it’s time for some wine

BENGALURU: Come January, the harvesting season for grapes begins with the Wine Board, along with Karnataka Tourism, planning Wine tourism.Here, people are taken in a bus to vineyards, where they get to taste 150 varieties of local wine flavours.Karnataka produces 80 lakh litres of wine every year. The State has 18 wine yards and over 15,000 grape growers. Karnataka units prepare four varieties of red and four of white wine.

“These wines are mixed in permutation and combination and stored at different temperatures. We are getting 150 varieties of wine flavours,’’ T Somu, Chairman to Karnataka Wine Board, told Express.
According to him, January is the right season for grape harvesting. “Taking this opportunity, we are introducing wine toursim next year (2018). We are going to tie up with Karnataka Tourism along with the vineyards. While Tourism department will take care of travelling, lodging and food, we will take visitors to vineyards to show them how wine is made. They will get to taste different kinds of wines,’’ he said. “We are selling 80 lakh litres of wine every year, and with wine tourism, we are expecting to cross one crore litres,’’ he said.  

Sources from Wine Board said they are planning to come up with a wine park at Vijayapura where the board has its own vineyard spread over 141 acres. It will have all the facilities under one umbrella. “Hi-tech nursery, production of wines, research institute, boutique winery and many more. In Vijayapura and its vicinity, there are many heritage places, including Gol Gumbaz, Badami, Aihole and others, and wine tourism can be included in it too’’ sources said.