Maharashtra’s wine country has never quite had its own answer to Napa or the Barossa Valley, an estate that felt less like a winery with rooms attached and more like a genuine destination. Hotel Irada, a Design Hotels by Marriott property roughly two hours from Pune, is making a serious case for the title, and it’s doing so on land with a past almost as compelling as the hotel itself.

An Estate With a Past Worth Knowing

Before it was Hotel Irada, this 66-acre property was Vijay Mallya’s private estate, the site of some of the 2000s’ most extravagant, unapologetically maximalist parties. That history isn’t hidden here so much as quietly reframed. Where Mallya’s era leaned into spectacle, the new ownership has rebuilt the estate around something steadier: a genuinely working winery, cradled within 4,000 acres of reserve forest, with the same instinct for a good party now channelled into something considerably more grounded.

The Setting

The estate sits in Daund, on the outskirts of Pune’s emerging wine belt, surrounded by vineyards that roll out toward a horizon of reserve forest rather than the usual scrubland that borders most Indian wine estates. It’s remote enough to feel like an genuine escape, close enough to Pune to make a long weekend entirely manageable, and the approach, winding through vineyard rows before the estate itself comes into view, does a fair amount of the scene-setting before you’ve even checked in.

The Rooms

True to the estate’s design-hotel billing, no two rooms at Irada are quite alike, and the property leans into that rather than smoothing it over. Estate Wing rooms come with courtyard views and an espresso machine for slow mornings; Gallery Rooms lean into a distinctly Parisian sensibility, complete with a Burgundy soaking tub and curated vintage finds; and the Vineyard Suites, the estate’s most generous accommodation at over a thousand square feet in the case of the Collector Suite, are built squarely around long, wine-soaked evenings, with private balconies overlooking the vines. Every room comes with the modern comforts you’d expect of a Marriott property, a Nespresso machine among them, but the styling throughout feels considerably more editorial than the brand’s standard playbook.

Where to Eat, and What to Expect From Service

Dining at Irada is built around the estate’s own wine, unsurprisingly, with two restaurants offering everything from relaxed, produce-forward plates to more considered evening menus designed to be paired course by course. Guests consistently single out the kitchen for praise, with more than one visitor crediting the property’s chef by name for dishes that clearly go beyond the expected hotel-restaurant fare. Service, similarly, draws its own loyal following, attentive without tipping into intrusive, and the estate manager’s wine tours are frequently mentioned as a highlight in their own right rather than a box-ticking add-on.

Wine, Wellness and Beyond the Vines

Irada’s working winery is the estate’s obvious centrepiece, with wine trails, tastings and vineyard tours forming the backbone of most guests’ days, but the property doesn’t stop there. Cycling routes wind through the surrounding countryside, and the grounds accommodate paddle, pickleball and mini-golf alongside a swimming pool and a full-service spa built around what the estate calls forest rituals, a wellness offering clearly designed to complement, rather than compete with, the wine-focused programming.

The Verdict

Hotel Irada succeeds by doing something genuinely uncommon in Indian hospitality: taking a property with a loaded, party-first history and rebuilding it around patience rather than spectacle, a working vineyard rather than a backdrop for one. It won’t be for guests chasing the ornate, all-inclusive resort experience Maharashtra’s hill stations do well elsewhere. But for anyone after a wine estate that actually takes its wine seriously, forest rituals that feel considered rather than gimmicky, and rooms that read more like a design magazine than a hotel brochure, Irada is one of the more interesting new additions to India’s luxury travel map.

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