Sparkling winemaker Good Drop Wine Cellars is all set to revive luxury brand Good Earth Wines. The company has acquired the rights to market the brand for an undisclosed sum. Launched in 2009, Good Earth was a wine producer in Pune that crafted a fine selection of still wines, but it was discontinued in 2013. The labels have now been re-launched by Good Drop Wine Cellars, says sparkling wine specialist Ashwin Rodrigues.

Trained at Barossa in Australia, chartered accountant-turned winemaker Ashwin Rodrigues is the owner of Vinchur Park. Nashik-based Good Drop Wine Cellars, who debuted with the carbonated wine Rio 3 years ago, launched the Prosecco style tank fermented Casablanca last December and recently introduced the Rose version. He wants to be recognised as the sparkling wine expert of India, but realised that a still wine portfolio is necessary to recover overheads.

“I had positioned Good Drop as a specialist sparkling wine producer and never seriously intended to make still wines. But I realised that in order to recover high sales and marketing overheads one must have a larger portfolio. So when I heard that Good Earth brand was available, I approached Girish Mhatre and purchased the brand. Good Earth still has a very high brand recall and I realised that since Mhatre has already spent a lot of time on these brands, it would be easier marketing these,” he told FE.

With brands like Casablanca and Rio in its belt, Good Drop has established itself as a quality producer of sparkling wines with accolades such as the Indian Wine Consumer’s Choice Awards, 2015. With the acquisition of Good Earth wines, Good Drop enters a guild of wine producers that produces a complete range of wines. The wines are made at their winery at Vinchur Wine Park in Nashik.

Good Earth was formed with the aim to produce wine in the premium segment focusing more on the international market and not as a mass producer. Mhatre then did not own a winery but has selected two wineries after careful evaluation of equipment, skills and experience in the processing of the varietals . His winemaker, Rajesh Rasal, has been retained by Rodrigues. Good Drop Wine Cellars has brought nine labels of Good Earth into the market.

Rodrigiues has decided to produce very small quantities and release a vintage for the high-end Basso and Brio.

He plans to drop the earlier price by about Rs 200 of Basso and Brio to Rs 1,250 and 1,200 respectively.Other brands in this range include Rasa by Sula, Vijay Amritraj Reserve Collection, Grover’s La Reserve, Reveilo Reserves, Charosa Reserves and Fratelli Sette. The intent is to launch some 350 cases of all the brands — Basso, Brio, Antaraa and Bleu, Bella and Blanca.

Earlier, Sula and Zampa dominated the sparkling wine market. Now, there are at least four new players: Chandon, Fratelli, York and Good Drop.According to International Wine & Spirit Research (IWSR), the market for sparkling wines in India is growing off a very small base of 4% of the total market. Wine consumption in India is likely to increase to 2.1 million cases by 2017, 73% higher than the 1.21 million cases in 2013, said a survey by Vinexpo.

The focus at Good Drop still remains on sparkling wines. The volume of sparkling wines has grown three times, thanks to the entry of Chandon in the Indian market, he says.

His winery has a capacity of 5.5 lakh litres with the capacity to expand to 15 lakh litres. From a turnover of Rs 4.5 crore in March 2015, Good Drop is looking at tripling revenues in a year. Yet another new sparkling brand is on way.

Rio sells 3000 cases a month and continues to be the main bread earner, Good Drop Cellar is eyeing a respectable position in the mainstream Indian wine industry and a key position in the sparkling segment.