Fruits & their provenance: The Chikoo Story - Around 1890 AD Sir Dinshaw Petit during his excursion to South American rainforests brought an exotic fruit sapling "Sapota" to the shores of Bombay. Due to lack of space in his home garden in Nana Chowk, the sampling was entrusted to his dear friend Ardeshir Irani who lived in the coastal town of Gholvad about 150km from the city. The fruit survived a host of challenges in this alien land. The Chikoo was grafted onto the local Rhyne tree by Merwan Khodadad, a local farmer after a storm uprooted most of the plantation. The local trees strong tap roots helped it become more resilient. Utmost care by its growers while some borrowing it's rootstock from the native Rhyne tree, it got a new name "Chikoo" which now grew favorably in this terroir. In return this humble fruit brought prosperity to its new home. Fine Chikoos became an identity of Dahanu-Gholvad and the surrounding region.
Availability : Select retail and restaurants in Mumbai & Thane Districts, Maharashtra
Owners: Shrikant Save, Priyanka Save, Nagesh Pai
Wine Maker: Domnic Rivard ( Consultant)
Message from the Owners: We are farmers who are immensely passionate about our fruit and believe in its potential for developing into a fine wine varietal. It’s the first ever wine made from pure Chikoo extracts, offering an outburst of tropical flavors on your palate. We have a family owned Resort and Fruit orchards in the hills surrounding the beautiful coastal town of Bordi. Dahanu-Gholvad Chikoo is renowned and also holds a Geographical Indication since July, 2016. A seed borer disease had destroyed the Chikoo market by 2004 and farmers had eventually resorted to cutting off Chikoo trees for some other cultivation. Even after the fruit recovered from its tyranny, the market acceptance suffered greatly. Moreover, Chikoo barely had any products that could add value to fruit. Other several problems with Chikoo were its high pH, highly perishable and uneven nature of ripening. We were trying to access all possible avenues so that Chikoo could be put to use. Most of the Chikoo dried products too failed to attract the consumers. We realized that Chikoo juice retained the major flavor component of the fruit and the dried matter had very little Chikoo flavor. Again the juice was tough to package and is highly perishable. The fruit has very strong ambient yeast that starts fermentation very fast post juice extraction. While a friend who was working on wines suggested Chikoo Wine as it’s in the nature of Chikoo to ferment. Wine would also add the much needed glamour quotient to the fruit and most important we could bottle Chikoo. And hence started working on Chikoo Wine in 2011.
Opening Hours: 09:00 am to 5:00 pm all days of the week
The tour: The winery tour comprises of walk through the winery and insights into fruit wine making including the journey of Chikoo Fruzzanté from idea to inception. Price of the tour: Rs. 200 per head
Duration of the tour: 30 – 45 mins
Reservation or walk-in: Reservations preferred. Tour can be conducted in language of preference – English, Hindi, Marathi and Gujarati
Dining: The winery is located in the premises of Hill Zill Resort which has a garden restaurant and bar serving wide variety of Indian cuisine including local seafood delicacies and farm fresh vegetables straight from the producers.
Accommodation: The winery is located in the premises of Hill Zill Resort which has 35 rooms with all amenities. For room charges and reservation please log on to www.hillzillresort.com
Special events for the harvest season: Chikoos do not have a particular harvest season, they are perennial in Dahanu. We are part of the larger Chikoo fest which happens on the first weekend of February each year. https://www.chikoofestival.com/
Discounts on buying wine: Discounts available as per season ranging from 10 – 25% off.
