Nashik valley wine farming imported grape plant varieties of Chenin blanc, Sauvignon blanc and Zinfandel and planted them in the land owned by his family. In 1997, Kerry Damskey, a leading wine maker from California's Sonoma Valley (the largest wine producer in the Wine Country region) provided the expertise for crushing of wine grapes. The first wine came to be marketed in March 2000 under the trade name "Sula". Several other farmers joined him in propagation of this effort. The wine magazine the "Sommeliar India", reported that Nashik Valley Wine was first marketed by Sula in 2000. The grape varieties raised in the
Ahr (wine region) a higher proportion of the much-appreciated Spätburgunder (Pinot noir) than any other German wine region. Other common grape varieties, by area of cultivation in 2008 are: While Ahr primarily grew red wine before the current red wine trend in Germany, until the 1980s the wines were almost invariably very light-colored, bordering on rosé, and often were significantly sweet. While this style of wine was perhaps rather unimpressive by international standards, Ahr could rely on its vicinity to the populous Ruhr Area to sell its small production to weekend tourists. In the 1980s, Werner Näkel of Weingut Meyer-Näkel started to experiment