Say hello to chikoo wine!

Well-crafted fruit wines are a little hard to come by in India. But Fruzzante, a family-owned brand of fruit wines with their flagship hand-crafted chikoo wine, cider style from Dahanu-Gholvad in Maharashtra is all set to woo the Indian consumer.

Started by the husband and wife duo, Priyanka Save and Nagesh Pai, Fruzzante is the latest fruit wine entrant in town and this one already has a ‘first’ to its name with it being the first chikoo wine in the world. “It’s the first ever wine made from chikoo and the aim was to give the fruit a much-needed glam quotient to revamp its place in the fruit industry.” says Priyanka.

Priyanka explains that while chikoos are available in plenty all year round in the area, sadly most chikoo products failed to attract customers. Packaging the juice too was hard till Nagesh hit upon the idea of chikoo wine.

Initially, the challenge was to counter the high pH and the unreasonably fast shelf life of the chikoo. The duo then took the help of Dominic Rivard, an award-winning winemaker from Nova Scotia, Canada. With his 20-year experience in winemaking, he helped create Fruzzante. The wine retails at Rs 225 for 330 ml.