Food & Wine Nepal – July 2019

Hospitality, Food & Wine, Monthly (49)

steadily, the people at
Pataleban have been working
towards producing finer Nepali wines.
The reception towards their products
have been immensely positive.

Producing wine is not an easy task by
any means and the people who started
here didn’t do it all by themselves
either. They sought professional help
from people in Switzerland who taught
them the various processes, including
growing and harvesting grapes, that are
required in producing a bottle of wine.

I partook in their annual harvest in
Kewalpur, an hour’s journey from
their Pataleban Vineyard Resort which
happens to have its own little vineyard
with over thirty five plants. The one in
Kewalpur represents one of the many
vineyards they possess spread across
over a hundred hectares of land. The
other ones are situated at Kaule, Khani
Khola and the Pataleban Vineyard
Resort itself.

Here, we participated in harvesting the
phoenix varietal of grapes which is
currently is undergoing a trial phase,
which if proven a success is likely to be
produced in the market.

“This is the first time that we have
grown this variety. We are optimistic
about it. Let’s harvest and see how it
turns out in a year”, says an enthusiastic
Kumar Karki.

Once the harvest gets underway, there
is no rest. Everyone is hard at work as
even a day of tardiness can result in the
fruit going bad. The grapes are cut from
the stem with a scissor and tossed into
baskets. This can be a slow process for
beginners like me and many others as
you need a keen eye to discard any spoilt

grape in the bunch. The workers

here on the other hand are experts at

what they do. They need not look twice

to spot a bad grape and quickly proceed

to filling baskets upon baskets of the

just harvested phoenix grapes. This

task seems easy but, it is a long process

and the sweltering heat doesn’t help the

occasion too. But, it is this same heat

that helps the grapes grow. The twenty

different varietals of grapes here require

a hot and humid climate for the perfect

growing conditions.

The several grapes filled baskets are

then loaded on to the back of a jeep

and taken down to their cellar where

the grapes loaded on to a machinery

called hydro presser that separates the

stems from the grapes and crushes it to

produce juices that are later used for the

wine.

After the grapes are crushed and

the juice gathered, the fermentation

process takes place. The fermentation

process requires up to a week for proper

fermentation. From there, the wine is

stored in large barrels for an additional

six to seven months until they are fully

ready to be bottled and marketed.

On being asked if the same kind of

wine from around the world taste the

same as the one produced here, they say