With brands like Casablanca and Rio under its belt, Good Drop has established itself as a quality producer of sparkling wines

the sparkling wine expert of India, but realised that a still wine portfolio is necessary to recover overheads.

"I had positioned Good Drop as a specialist sparkling wine producer and never seriously intended to make still wines. But I realised that in order to recover high sales and marketing overheads onemusthavealargerportfolio. So when I heard that Good Earth brand was available, I approached Girish Mhatre and purchased the brand. Good Earth still has a very high brand recall and I realised that since Mhatre has already spent a lot of time on these brands, it would be easier marketing these," he told FE.

With brands like CasablancaandRioinitsbelt, Good Drop has established itself as a quality producer of sparkling wines with accolades such as the Indian Wine Consumer's Choice Awards, 2015. With the acquisition of Good Earth wines, Good Drop enters a guild of wine producers that produces a complete range of wines. The wines are made at their winery at Vinchur Wine Park in Nashik.

Good Earth was formed with the aim to produce wine in the premium segment focusing Blanca.

Earlier, Sula and Zampa dominated the sparkling wine market. Now, there are at least four new players: Chandon, Fratelli, York and Good Drop.According to International Wine & Spirit Research(IWSR),themarketfor sparkling wines in India is growing off a very small base of 4% of the total market. WineconsumptioninIndiais likely to increase to 2.1 million cases by 2017, 73% higher than the 1.21 million cases in 2013, said a survey by Vinexpo.

The focus at Good Drop still remains on sparkling wines. The volume of sparkling wines has grown three times, thanks to the entry of Chandon in the Indian market, he says.

His winery has a capacity of 5.5 lakh litres with the capacity to expand to 15 lakh litres. From a turnover of Rs 4.5 crore in March 2015, Good Drop is looking at tripling revenues in a year. Yet another new sparkling brand is on way. Rio sells 3000 cases a month and continues to be the main bread earner, Good Drop Cellar is eyeing a respectable position in the mainstream Indian wine industry and a key position in the sparkling segment.