Wine tourism is one of the growing industry in India, Nashik is known as the wine capital of India. There is one more hidden gem in the Akluj region, just 3-4 hours drive away from the Pune city. Its none other than the Fratelli vineyards, spread across the 240 acres of land and producing one of the best wines in India.
Being a wine lover, I planned a road trip to Fratelli from Bangalore. You have to book the room in advance as they have only 4 rooms and mostly gets filled very quickly.
https://stayflexi.com/hotel/FratelliEstate/Maharashtra/22426/
It may cost you around 8400+ per night, based on the dates and offers. I booked for the two nights, as first day will be gone in travel itself.
Here is a short memory from my trip:
Journey: I started from the Bangalore around 6 AM, with 1 stop for the lunch and 1 stop for refueling on the way. It took almost 12 hours to cover the 720 KM as the highway is good but a lot of truck traffic.
I took the shortest route suggested by the Google Map through solapur, almost 80% of the road conditions are good enough to maintain 80 KMPH. As I was driving the powerful SUV so the road conditions didn't bother much :)
Stay: The check in experience was smooth as they have limited guests, the hospitality is unmatched. The rooms are so spacious, with a huge bathroom too.
All rooms are equipped with Air Conditioner/ LED TV / Bathroom utilities / Filtered drinking water bottles and so on.
After a quick relaxing break and refreshing tea, we were driven in a open jeep to the sunset point in the vineyard which is just 5 minutes away.
Along with the sunset point, we were given a glimpse of grapes which were getting ready for production line :)
Wine tasting: After the quick tour, we came back to the resort and had the first round of wine tasting experience. We were served with various varieties of red and white wines along with the Fratelli cheese.
We tried various wines including Chenin, Shiraz and Sangiovese. We were lucky to get to try premium wines of Sette and J-Noon too, as they had few open bottles :). Though its difficult to pick one, but Sette is no doubt a clear winner.
Its a nice experience to get to know the details of wine and stories behind it. The evening was concluded with the homely dinner, freshly made in the open kitchen. It had variety of dishes including chicken salad, chicken starters, daal, mutter paneer served with fresh roti and rice. Not to mention the Ice cream with Gulab jamun as cherry on the top :)
Breakfast :Next morning, we enjoyed a few games of pool with the delicious breakfast. Though options were limited, but staff was really quick to serve you on any special request. You can have your hunger satisfied with Poha / Bread/ Jams/ Kellogg/ Omelet/ Fruits and tea :)
Lunch at Machan:
For the lunch, it was exclusive setup done at a machan nested between the vineyards.
You can enjoy the view from the top with a sip of wine and local delicacies like Mutton Curry, Desa chutney, Pitla curry
Tip: It may be sunny and dusty, so prefer to take your own car to machan rather than going in open Jeep.
Winery Tour:
In the evening, we were escorted for a winery tour. Mr. Kshitij explained all the process on the assembly line along with the a quick tour to the lines of barrels undergoing the ageing process of wine.
We had our second round of wine tasting ranging from Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Chenin blanc. Sometime difficult to pick one, right? :)
Movie Night: The night ended with a perfect setup of the Movie night on the open garden, served with the Italian dinner and Shiraz Rose. The home made pizza and pasta was really a treat to enjoy with the glass of cold wine.
To sum it up, it was an amazing experience to know the winery process and experience the wine tasting. The resort is well suited for kids as there are lot of open space and activities, which makes this as a family friendly weekend getaway.
Things to do:
-Vineyard Tour
-Winery Tour
-Movie Night
-Lunch at machan
-ATV ride
-Wine Tasting
-Indoor Activities: Pool/ Carrom/Board games/TT table/ Foosball / Reading room.
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