The Trip To Vineyard

The times are good the times are strange. This weekend added another chapter to the interesting times I have been having amidst the heavy workload at the office. The fact that this post is coming after a gap is because of too busy a schedule that I have been having off late. Nonetheless this is not a crib post but one on the way that I celebrated Holi.

We (me and couple of my closest friends from Hel(L)) had been deliberating upon a way to spend the weekend (finally I had one thanks to the "Holi"day on sat). Having ruled out Kashid for certain reasons, we settled on a trip to vineyard in Nasik. Working in a beverages team obviously has its advantage, so courtesy a colleague of mine, everything was fixed in a jiffy and lo we were on our way to Nasik on a sunny afternoon from Mumbai. Two assholes and two ladies with the intentions of making merry (no need for any wild imagination here :D). My friend, with his new car was driving it with care (being a kind of first drive on Highway for him). Mumbai was also to add to our delay with its traffic and it took us more than an hour to get outta it.

Anyways soon on course through bumpy roads (who calls it a Highway I dunno) we enjoyed the drive despite all efforts of Sun to give us a beating. We had the intentions of witnessing the sunset with a glass of wine but given the delay we finally reached at around 8 only to the Sula vineyard. There the contact, we had to touch base with, first took us through the operations of winery. With lotsa fundas he made the time count and we surely gathered some knowledge.

Soon it was time that we had been waiting for and we headed for the wine tasting. The person took us through it tastefully (literally). So till date what was just a casual understanding of tastes became a little more than that, with some light thrown on the nuances of wines and their characteristics. From dryness to sweetness, to "legs" of wine and the fermentation temperature etc we did gain quite a bit of stuff (not to say that we are already experts!!).

Having taken some amount during tasting itself we finally settled down to go on a binge. And soon the blabber of words was suggesting that we were splurging. And tastefully so. Bottles and pints were soon empty. With a heady feeling (the women experiencing it more ;) ) we finally headed back after draining a good amount. Most of us being totally sloshed there was quite a bit of concern on part of ladies about who'd be driving. In the end despite me being most sober, I didn't get a chance to drive :D . But yes I became a witness to most interesting of conversations :) (no details on this :) )

Day 2, we woke up late despite having made plans last night to have breakfast at Taj. As usual we gave up the idea and decided to have a light one at the place we were staying. Soon we headed back to Sula for another dive into the divine world of wines (oops .. did I make it sound poetic ?? ). Anyways back at the Sula tasting room we made merry. Its a beautiful place very tastefully done. So to add pleasure to your tasting buds it adds pleasure to the visual taste buds as well. Overlooking a vineyard one can see a beautiful lake a little ahead as well. The interiors have been done with heart put in it and is a visual delight. All said and done we were soon back to business of another drinking session. This time a bit less though as we had to head back.

Soon with a heavy heart (its becoming so common after each trip of mine) we headed back, with sun not that angry this time. We criss crossed the ghats with some brilliant display of glory of sun in orange light.. The air this time being much more cooler we reached in lesser time back to the ghettos of Mumbai.

To summarise, it was a great/different way of celebrating Holi and helped me get back to the groove of loving wines.