Just 45 km north of Bangalore, lies the Nandi Hills, which in the 18th century hosted the summer palace of Tipu Sultan and during the 19th century became a summer retreat for officials of the British Raj. The latest wave of visitors seeking to benefit from a cooler climate in southern India are viticulturalists. They are keen to find sites where wine grape varieties can ripen slowly and fully develop their constituent fruit flavours without becoming baked.

Leading the search has been Kanwal Grover who founded Grover Vineyards in 1988. They have some 160ha of French varietals and have produced some of India’s best wines to date. Other growers have started to exploit the region’s natural attributes and we can expect to see expect to see more growers and winemakers moving into this region in the future.