The Indian wine merchant with Soul
EVER thought about quitting your job, heading back to university and starting a wine business? That is exactly what Alok Mathur, the co-founder of Indian wine company Soul Tree Wine, did after ending his automotive career at the Tata Group.
Mr Mathur, 45, who lives in Solihull, and the company’s other co-founder Melvin D’Souza, met when they headed to the University of Oxford as mature students. He explained that they were both searching for something they could be passionate about.
“We were both at the stage in our lives where we were looking for something exciting and meaningful to do,” said Mr Mathur. “You get to the stage where you love your job, you make good money, but what next?
“When we met at university, we found that we shared a common dream and that was to put Indian wine on the map and get a global influence. Not only would we be working with a product that we love as we are both wine enthusiasts, we could also influence and change the wine industry.”
Soul Tree Wine, which is produced in India’s third largest state Maharashtra, has now been established for five years, has seen a huge amount of success globally in recent years, winning six awards for the wine and several for the business itself.
There are seven types of wine available from Soul Tree, including Aikya Sparkling Wine, Sauvignon Blanc 2015 and Shiraz 2014, is now sold in more than 1,000 outlets in the UK and in a number of places in Germany and the USA too. The business is still relatively small, with a handful of staff in the UK, two in India and one in the US.
So what makes Indian wine different to the likes of those that we enjoy from France, Australia and South Africa?
Mr Mathur said: “We are coming up with a style of our own. Our wine makers understand the local taste and cuisine as they have grown up in the area.
“Wine is different in every country it is made because of the temperature and the soil. But with the climate in India and the highly volcanic soils, make the wine is very rich. The combination of these makes it a very unique setting and different from anywhere else on earth.
“India is a rapidly growing, very exciting wine region and we want the rest of the world to enjoy it. People enjoy drinking wine from different regions and if India is such an exciting place, why shouldn’t people be drinking Indian wine? It’s a bonus that they go so well with Indian food too.”
Looking to the future, Soul Tree Wine is hoping to add more to its selection of wine and making the taste even more distinctive. He said: “People are beginning to realise that Indian wine is a rapidly growing area and they’re reading more about it in the press and the wine trade is becoming more open to it.”
* Thinking about having an Indian takeaway this weekend?
“It is conventional to choose wine depending on the type of meat you have,” said Mr Mathur. “But when it comes to Indian food, the sauce dominates the dish. Therefore, we like to pair our wines with a type of sauce.
“Our reserve wines go well with a heavy curry like a vindaloo or madras and our lighter wine go better with the likes of mild and creamy dishes. However, wine recommendations shouldn’t be taken too seriously as you need to trust your own palate and what you enjoy.”
