Margaret River winemaker Watershed Premium Wines announces a joint venture with India’s Mittal Vineyards.

Mittal Vineyards will be launching their brand Silk Route, a range of fine Indian wines with the technical assistance and know-how provided by Watershed Premium Wines.

Geoff Barrett, Managing Director of Watershed Premium Wines said: “Mittal Vineyards will market and distribute Watershed wines throughout India. Our joint venture has acknowledged the excellence of Watershed’s wines and winemaking processes and that contribute towards Mittal’s future products.

“This places Watershed in an ideal position to participate in the ongoing growth of this important international wine market and reinforces Watershed’s commitment to grow its brand throughout the South East Asian market.”

Although the development of vineyards has flattened over the past two years, and production has exceeded sales demand, over the medium term the domestic Indian wine industry is expected to show strong growth.

”We at Mittal Vineyards are really excited about this venture and are looking forward to launching Premium Wines in India along with the Watershed Premium Wines Portfolio. We believe they will complement each other well in India’s dynamic market with the help of the excellent team set in place by Mr Barrett at Watershed which can be seen by the cascade of awards being added to Watershed’s walls” said Ankush Mittal, Director Operations and Marketing.

The vineyards are situated in the hills of Nashik, about 200 kilometres north of Mumbai. The winery is being built in the famous Dindori district. Watershed Premium Wines have entered into a technical collaboration & marketing assistance agreement with Mittal.

Mittal Vineyard’s website is short on detail at present but boasts plenty of high end ideas and claims such as “Premium Quality Wines, Coming Soon from the vineyards of the Mittal Vineyards Estate at Nashik, India, the Vitis vinifera city of South Asia (Also referred to as the Bordeaux or Napa Valley of India)”.

Amit Mittal, Managing Director and Chairman of Mittal Vineyards said: “Margaret River has produced the winner of the prestigious Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy in two of the past three years and has demonstrated that it is a world class producer of cabernet sauvignon and cabernet blends.”

He has hooked up with a suitable producer here. Watershed’s 2008 Awakening Cabernet Sauvignon has recently won three gold medals and three trophies in the space of one month in Australian wine shows, showing how excellently Margaret River grows cabernet.

In early October Australia’s largest maker, Treasury Wine Estates, launched their Wolf Blass range through the Delhi-based builders the Pearls Group. Founded by business man Nirmal Singh, it’s primarily a real estate group expanding into education, hospitals and imports of Australian beer, wine and food products.

Mittal Vineyard are a subsidiary of Dooars Transport http://dooarstransport.com which has been in logistics in South Asia for over 50 years

www.watershedwines.com.au and www.mittalvineyards.com