We have been planning to visit the Grover vineyard for quite sometime. We wanted to time our visit with the harvest season of the grapes. Best time to visit the Grover vineyard is during the month of March-April when the vineyard are full of mature grapes. We visited the place in the first week of April.
Visit to this place is perfect half a day trip with family and/or friends. The tour typically starts at 10:30AM and ends around 2:30 PM. To book a tour visit their website http://grovervineyards.in/our-estate.html. When we visited the tour cost was Rs. 1000 per person (kids below 11 years go free). Weekday package costs lesser. This includes the vineyard visit, visit to vineary, wine tasting followed by lunch.
We started around 7AM from Koramangala, Bangalore. Had quick South Indian breakfast and headed to Nandi Hills. In summer, the early mornings and late evenings are very pleasant in Nandi hill. As we had visited Nandi Hills many times, we planned to spend only an hour or so in Nandi Hills and then head to the vineyards. The best way to explore Nandi Hills is to trek from the foot hills. For this one needs 1 full day dedicated to Nandi Hills.
We reached Nandi Hills around 9AM, walked around to get some good views. There were quite a few people here. Got to know that Radio One (94.3) had been promoting about the stars visiting Nandi Hills and the crowd was there to see the Bollywood stars. However when we enquired, we got to know that this was an April Fool prank played by the RJs. We spent about an hour and headed to the Grover Vineyard as our tour was starting at 10:30 AM.
Grover Vineyard is on the foot of Nandi Hills. If you are driving on NH 7 to Nandi Hills from Bangalore, take the left turn at Doddaballpur junction (the left turn right before the Nandi Hills turn. Landmark is the Jain temple on the left side of NH7). You will also see a yellow board with "Grover Vineyard. The vineyard is about 14 KMs once you take the left turn on NH7. Once you reach the vineyard, you will be asked to register. There were around 8-10 other families who were taking the 10:30 tour.
The tour started with a brief introduction and history of Grover Vineyard. We were then asked to take our vehicles to visit the vineyard. The vineyard is about 1-2 Kms from the Grover Resorts. Don't forget to carry your Caps/Umbrella/Sun glasses. Its quite hot out their in the vineyards at 11am in March-April. The vineyards are super. We could see 2 main varieties of grapes - Red and Green. Here the staff gives the history, explains how they cultivate different varieties, how they prevent from pests etc. It can get a bit boring for kids especially if one has to stand in hot sun and listen to the lecture. Once the session is over you are left to explore the vineyards. We had great fun in checking the different bunches of grapes, tasting the different varieties and taking pictures.
After the visit to vineyard, we had to return to the resort. We were then taken to the vineary tour. Karishma Grover (grand daughter of Grover - who started the Grover vineyard) anchored the vineary tour for us. The tour involved explanation from how the grapes are stored, crushed, separated, fermented, bottled, stored in cellars etc. We could see different machines involved. We could feel the passion when she was explaining the process.
Last part of the tour was - visit to the cellar. Here the wines are stored in barrels. At this place tables are arranged for visitors to taste the wines. The staff serves different variety of wines for tasting. for each variety they also explain the details of the wine, whether it should be taken chilled or warm, which food goes well etc. We also got tips on how to drink wine including holding of the wine glass. while the adults were busy tasting wines, kids had a gala time playing hide and seek around the barrels.
After tasting about 5-6 variety of wines, we were taken back to the resort where the lunch was being served. Lunch is simple includes Soup, Biryani, Papad and some dessert. Of course there was wine served with lunch :) We had our lunch at leisure in the garden. We also did some wine shopping and started back to Bangalore. All in all a very nice relaxed trip and also very informative. My kids enjoyed the whole tour too.
Visit to this place is perfect half a day trip with family and/or friends. The tour typically starts at 10:30AM and ends around 2:30 PM. To book a tour visit their website http://grovervineyards.in/our-estate.html. When we visited the tour cost was Rs. 1000 per person (kids below 11 years go free). Weekday package costs lesser. This includes the vineyard visit, visit to vineary, wine tasting followed by lunch.
We started around 7AM from Koramangala, Bangalore. Had quick South Indian breakfast and headed to Nandi Hills. In summer, the early mornings and late evenings are very pleasant in Nandi hill. As we had visited Nandi Hills many times, we planned to spend only an hour or so in Nandi Hills and then head to the vineyards. The best way to explore Nandi Hills is to trek from the foot hills. For this one needs 1 full day dedicated to Nandi Hills.
We reached Nandi Hills around 9AM, walked around to get some good views. There were quite a few people here. Got to know that Radio One (94.3) had been promoting about the stars visiting Nandi Hills and the crowd was there to see the Bollywood stars. However when we enquired, we got to know that this was an April Fool prank played by the RJs. We spent about an hour and headed to the Grover Vineyard as our tour was starting at 10:30 AM.
Grover Vineyard is on the foot of Nandi Hills. If you are driving on NH 7 to Nandi Hills from Bangalore, take the left turn at Doddaballpur junction (the left turn right before the Nandi Hills turn. Landmark is the Jain temple on the left side of NH7). You will also see a yellow board with "Grover Vineyard. The vineyard is about 14 KMs once you take the left turn on NH7. Once you reach the vineyard, you will be asked to register. There were around 8-10 other families who were taking the 10:30 tour.
The tour started with a brief introduction and history of Grover Vineyard. We were then asked to take our vehicles to visit the vineyard. The vineyard is about 1-2 Kms from the Grover Resorts. Don't forget to carry your Caps/Umbrella/Sun glasses. Its quite hot out their in the vineyards at 11am in March-April. The vineyards are super. We could see 2 main varieties of grapes - Red and Green. Here the staff gives the history, explains how they cultivate different varieties, how they prevent from pests etc. It can get a bit boring for kids especially if one has to stand in hot sun and listen to the lecture. Once the session is over you are left to explore the vineyards. We had great fun in checking the different bunches of grapes, tasting the different varieties and taking pictures.
Last part of the tour was - visit to the cellar. Here the wines are stored in barrels. At this place tables are arranged for visitors to taste the wines. The staff serves different variety of wines for tasting. for each variety they also explain the details of the wine, whether it should be taken chilled or warm, which food goes well etc. We also got tips on how to drink wine including holding of the wine glass. while the adults were busy tasting wines, kids had a gala time playing hide and seek around the barrels.
After tasting about 5-6 variety of wines, we were taken back to the resort where the lunch was being served. Lunch is simple includes Soup, Biryani, Papad and some dessert. Of course there was wine served with lunch :) We had our lunch at leisure in the garden. We also did some wine shopping and started back to Bangalore. All in all a very nice relaxed trip and also very informative. My kids enjoyed the whole tour too.
