Wines from Vineyard Owned by Hastings Resident Catching on in Westchester

Hastings resident Girish Mhatre has long been fond of wine. Business acquaintances and friends, when they dined with Mhatre, often relied on him to pick the right wine to complement a particular dish.

“I was a wine aficionado or a wine snob depending on who you ask,” Mhatre admitted.

So when he retired from a career as a publisher and editor of computer and electronics magazines, his friends suggested he apply his knowledge of wine in a business.

That is what he did–but not in a way anyone expected.

On a vacation trip to his native India in 2007, Mhatre came across a winery up for sale in Nashik Valley and bought it.

He renamed it “Good Earth Winery,” sought out a master wine maker and hired Dr. Rajesh Rasal who is the first and, thus far, the only recipient of a Doctor of Philosophy degree in oenology (the science of wine) to be awarded by an Indian university. Together they succeeded in developing premium, organic Indian wines.

Four Westchester County restaurants and several in Manhattan offer Mhatre’s wines at this time.

Orissa in Dobbs Ferry serves Basso, a deep, rich “Cabernet Indica,” a genetic variant of Cabernet Sauvignon; Harvest On Hudson in Hastings-on-Hudson and Coromandel in New Rochelle serve Brio, a spicy Shiraz and Rainwater Grill in Hastings-on-Hudson serves the white wine Aarohi. A major retailer, Westchester Wine Warehouse in White Plains, sells all three of the wines.

Good Earth Winery’s wines are also available in Mumbai and other cities in India.

India’s Nashik Valley is a high altitude region on the edge of India’s vast Deccan plateau, about 200 miles northeast of Mumbai. Its cooler climate and protection against the lashing monsoon rains from the west, make Nashik Valley well suited to for sustaining vineyards.”

“Wine has not been part of the Indian table and Indian wine makers tended to make sweeter, younger wines they believed would appeal to the Indian palate,” says Mhatre. “Ours is the first winery in India to age its wines in oak barrels.”

“Our wines are generally earthy and slightly smoky, rather than fruity,” he said.  “We strive for optimizing the A, B, C of wine–acidity, balance and complexity,  rather than making them taste like any other wines.”

“The wines are also well suited to pairing with the spicy cuisines of South Asia and the Far East,” he added. 

Food pairing is a particular passion with Girish who disagrees with the prevailing wisdom that only white, off-dry wines such as Gewurztraminer and Riesling are suited to spicy cuisines.  “Our wines stand up to the spiciest Indian, Thai and Chinese cuisines," he said. “You need the tannin and smoke to fight off the chilies.” 

Making wine in India allows Mhatre to spend time in Mumbai, where he once lived. “The best part of it is that we harvest in February and March, which means that I escape the New York winter,” he said. For the rest of the year, he and his wife Shanti, a banking executive, live in Hastings-on-Hudson.

For information about Good Earth Winery, go to www.usa.goodearthwinery.com.