It was a beautiful love story. Sudah and Pandit Patil get married and leave India for the U.S. She becomes an ambitious lifelong learner. He becomes an endlessly encouraging husband.
“We got married within 10 days,” she said.
Together, they open the first Indian-owned winery in the U.S., making her the U.S.’s first female Indian winemaker. They named the winery for her mother-in-law, Narmada. It's also the name of a famous river in India.
“Because she sacrificed a lot for us to come to this country for our education,” she said.
She and her husband opened Narmada Winery in Amissville, Virginia, in 2009, but their journey started in 1968. The two met when her husband, Pandit, was on break studying in the U.S.
“He said, 'as soon as I finish my Ph.D. I will send you to college also,'” Sudha said. “So, I told him if he was willing then it’ll be a go, kind’ve.”
When they moved from India to the U.S., the Patils lived with a host family who taught Sudah to speak English.
“She was always behind me and my mom from India was always behind me,” she said.
The couple had two children. Once they were in middle and high school, Sudha decided it was time to go back to class.
She earned a chemistry degree from George Mason, attended dental school at Georgetown and got a master's in endodontics at the University of Maryland.
She ran a practice in McLean for 20 years and opened another in Culpeper.
Then, the wine bug hit.
She took classes, studied, tasted, tested and eventually opened a vineyard.
“We started our vineyard at two acres, and we were tending to it on the weekends,” she said.
As their passion grew, so did their vision and Pandit's encouragement.
“He said, 'Its' okay, you want to try it, go ahead, try it,'” she said.
They turned the 2 acres into 20. She turned herself into an award-winning winemaker. They’ve won over 900 awards and more than 150 gold medals.
Pandit passed away in 2018. But the couple's dream lives on.
“He was always so proud of me. He always talked about me, ‘I’m not the winemaker. It's my wife who does that part, she’s the chemistry person,’” she said.
Sudha grows over 50 tons of grapes and produces about 36,000 bottles of wine a year.
Her next goal? Sudah said she wants to produce 60,000 bottles a year and win the coveted Virginia Governor's Cup.
“I wasn’t even thinking of being first at anything really. This was a passion we had for wine,” she said.
