Yet another entrepreneur looking to invest funds into the Indian wine industry, Girish Mhatre has established Good Earth as a “virtual” winery. By this he means that he owns neither vineyard nor winery. Instead he looks to purchase grapes under contract from farmers in the Nasik area which he then processes into wine using currently spare capacity at Nashik-based ND Wines and York Wines. The first wines under the Good Earth label were released in 2008.

As long as there is considerable spare capacity in the Indian wine industry Mhatre’s investment-lite approach, coupled with a heavy marketing campaign, might bring short-term success. Longer term he will need to convince consumers of his capability of producing high quality wines on a consistent basis.