Kapil admits to a flushof delight when he visits somebody�s home and finds them offering a Grover�s wine. �But it is nothing compared to going to a restaurant and finding somebody drinking it at the next table� especially when that restaurant is in London or Paris,� he says proudly.

KAPIL Grover, a director of Grover Vineyards � that maker of fine Indian wines, is a self-confessed whisky drinker whose favorite brands of the spirit are Chivas Regal, Teacher�s and Black & White. He will, of course, drink wine also. At least three or four times a week. And not just his own, like the prestigious La Reserva crafted in the best wine-making traditions of Bordeaux and coming out of Grover estate at the foot of Nandi Hills in Dodballapur, Karnataka. But the local competitors� wines as well. Chougule�s from Narayangaon and Samant�s from Nashik. Which he will professionally share with his own French and Indian wine-makers so that they know what is available here and what the competition is like. But ask Kapil to describe the Chougule�s Reisling or Samant�s Chenin Blanc, and he cleverly replies, �No comment!�

He has been drinking wine since 1975, though the memory of his first experience, a Mateuse Rose at the Gaylord in London, is awful. �It was a Portuguese wine and I tried to match it with Indian food. I was 19. The wine was bad. I was by then already drinking beer in college. My next experience was wonderful. Dad (Kanwal Grover, the Big Daddy and pioneer of wine making in India) bid and got a dozen bottles of Mouton Rothschild 1961 which we had with gravied bateir and gotli pav at home. It was simply delightful. The wine and food made a great combination,� recalls Kapil. Since then, he went on to join Grover Vineyards in 1982, and has had several successful food and wine pairings.

He admits it is hard to get a great combination between Indian food and wine like, say Foie Gras and Sauterne, but Kapil says if the food is good and the wine great, then that makes an attractive combination and people should just enjoy the experience. �You drink for enjoyment. I do it all the time. It is a different matter, of course, when I am in the winery and sampling a wine. Then it�s business and pleasure.� It is different, again, when Kapil is in a fine wining and dining restaurant and studying the extensive wine list and menu to see what he should drink and eat. Normally, the places he chooses to dine at, he expects will have good food and a reasonable wine list. So he tries to select a menu that will go with the wine. His father is fond of saying, �Try to go beyond the normally accepted combinations, and it�s and endless journey.� Which Kapil says is true.

Ask him about Grover�s philosophy, and Kapil says, �It�s quality, quality and quality. Quantity is not important. We are working with Michel Rolland, who ranks among the top oenologists of the world and who has helped a number of wineries from Chile to California to bring out their best, and we have a got a five year plan with improvements each year. I won�t bite off more than I can chew. We have never chased big turnovers. Instead, we are happy that Grover is recognised as a premium wine of India and which is of international quality. The bottom line at Grover Vineyards is that we won�t release a wine that Dad and I cannot ourselves drink.� It is a good philosophy and a healthy philosophy. Even if Kapil and father both are certified whisky drinkers. The whisky is had before dinner, and the wine with the food, that is another practice of the Grovers.

Kapil is quite the family man. He and wife Jayshree will work hard and then party with a close set of friends. They have always believed in spending lot of time with their children. From day one, he has been the kind of father who would wake up at 6.30 to take charge of the car pool and drop the children to school. �Which means I would not be up dancing the night before,� he admits. Golf is a passion with him. When he is in Bombay, he makes time for a round on Saturdays. He keeps busy otherwise, traveling the world, and especially the beaten path between home in Bombay and the Grover Vineyards at Dodballapur. He goes there once in three weeks and spends two or three days at the estate. It is Cabernet Sauvignon country where the Grovers have 100-plus acres of vineyards with canopies of French vine varieties fluttering in the breeze.

From the grapes they harvest here, Grovers make millions of bottles of red and white and rose wines that the Indian market finds excellent enough to put alongside their French, Italian and Californian imports in five star bars. Kapil admits to a flush of delight when he visits somebody�s home and finds them offering a Grover�s wine. �But it is nothing compared to going to a restaurant and finding somebody drinking it at the next table� especially when that restaurant is in London or Paris,� he says proudly.

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