India’s diverse culture is equally matched by our diverse landscapes and variety of natural harvests of herbs and exotic fruits. Some regions are blessed with an abundance of organic goodness like Ziro valley in Arunachal Pradesh, where the climate and the rolling hill slopes makes it ideal for the cultivation of kiwis and fruits such as plum and pears.

However, not long ago, farmers of the region were withdrawing from cultivation of the fruits and were closing down their farms due to underutilization.

In 2016, Engineer-turned-Entrepreneur, Tage Rita Takhe, decided to invest in a boutique winery in her native village, Hong in Ziro and launched Naara Aaba in 2018. Takhe’s tribe, the Apatani, has always being brewing wine from rice and millets but never from kiwi. Her winery, set in a 2,300-square foot space started using organic fruit sourced from her personal orchard as well as those from the Kiwi Growers Cooperative Society in Arunachal Pradesh.

Today, India’s first organic Kiwi Winery continues to roll out delicious bottles of kiwi wines, while supporting and sustaining the culture of harvesting kiwi and other fruits among the local farmers.

Extending the goal of a sustainable market for the local farmers, the winery, recently introduced two new wines – the Naara Aaba plum and pears wine. This new initiative increases harvesting benefit for local farmers with the inclusion of two new fruits in the winemaking process.

Engaging the local community has been at the core of Naara Aaba’s vision while introducing delicious organic fruit wines to the wine lovers of the state of Arunachal and beyond. As the Naara Aaba winery won hearts with their popular kiwi wines, they are now all set to indulge wine lovers with their pears & plum wines. The pears wine is infused with another fruit – Salyo (commonly known as Champak) which makes up for a great flavour component owing to its rich, velvety aroma. Its usage also encourages the replantation of the Salyo trees, which once grew wild in the valley but were cut off for their high health benefits along with other trees due to timbering.

The first batch of production for the pears wine (infused with Salyo) and plum wines consisted a minimum number of bottles, on a trial basis. The trial-run was conducted in the local market. The winery is preparing for its second batch of production and is targeted for a wider distribution in Arunachal along with domestic exports.

A powerful vision aided by the undeterred will of a woman entrepreneur, to support the livelihood of the local community is what makes the Naara Aaba range of wines empowering for the local farmers and delightful for wine lovers.

Although, the winemaking process is just one of the solutions to the impending problem of wastage in the valley, it definitely widens up the possibility of future prospects to enhance the livelihood scenario further in Ziro and other regions of the state. Ideally tagging along with the vision “Vocal for Local” the idea is of complete self-reliant by improving local manufacturing and productive efficiency, to stay relevant with the world as well as contribute to the world.