Of Fine Thai Wine

wine.jpg

You realized Thailand didn’t invent wine when you saw the Thai couple pour ice cubes into a nice dark Burgundy. You realized Thailand is not the best place to enjoy a decent bottle of wine when you paid for a simple cooking wine the price you normally pay for a nicely aged Penfolds Grange back home.

As our wise governments here say, whoever wants to enjoy a bottle of wine is able to fork over the money for steep taxes. Which is why, when BangkokDan travels back to Thailand from overseas, his bags are filled with nice bottles of red wine.

Which doesn’t mean though that no wine culture has taken root in the kingdom. There is some fantastic wine made here. BangkokDan tells you by whom and where.

About every region in Thailand has become the home of a winery. Carefully manicured vineyards are not only a new playground for the rich who want to beautify their homeland with some exotic foreign flavor and culture. Thailand’s sub-tropical climate and loamy and slate sands soil are quite suitable for the cultivation of world class wines.

Sure, if you buy an OTOP wine you’ll most likely get a sugary liqueur-like fluid knocking you out after a few sips.

But then again, I always got a bottle of Kaempferia Pandurata in the fridge. An OTOP red wine from Phitsanulok which is great for sauces. God knows what’s it made out of.

But there’s the real thing: Thailand has become a chosen place of many great wines and boutique-style wineries.

Pionieer was Château de Loei – which served its fruity best bottles at the first ASEM summit 1996 in Bangkok to guests of honor such as Indonesia’s Suharto, China’s Li Peng and France’s Chirac.

Chirac didn’t comment on the wine – but he also didn’t ask for refills.

What he’d most likely do today, with the production of world class wines, such as the harvests of the GranMonte Estate, of the PB Valley Khao Yai Winery or – not kidding – Hua Hin’s own winery, the Hua Hin Hills Vineyards, opening in April ‘08.

The PB Valley Khao Yai’s Reserve Shiraz 2000 had been served at the gala dinner for the heads of states at Bangkok’s APEC summit in 2003.

Not that these Thai vintages come cheaper because they’re locally produced. They’re subject to taxes as well. They don’t have to pay the 60% import duties, but the insane 200% excise duty. And all employ renowned foreign winemakers – be it Germans, French, Americans or whoever grew up in the tradition of winemaking.

Like Frenchman Jacques Bacou who fine-tunes the Château des Brumes winery of owner Virawat Cholvanich – to “pick the grapes in the cool of the night to ensure maximum quality.”

Château des Brumes is part of the Village Farm which calls itself an “ecology-based development (…) and active working and entertaining farm where good quality wine grapes and flowers are grown in harmony with nature’s beauty.”

The wineries’ websites read like poetry, such as Château de Brumes’: “After selection, bunches are crushed and de-stemmed to remove any possibility of harsh, green, stem tannins. The fruit is then sent straight into small, stainless steel fermentation tanks, where they undergo a gentle, temperature controlled ferment which maximizes the development of flavour and complexity whilst eliminating the potential for unsavory characters from wild, hot ferments.”

“After the completion of the fermentation, the must is basket pressed and the wines gently racked for malolactic conversion and maturation in new French and American oak barrels. Minimal filtration and only occasional gentle racking are undertaken to preserve the subtle and complex characters in the wine prior to bottling. This natural winemaking process allows the wines to retain their pristine fruit characters, captures the complexity and subtle nuances of aromas and flavours, and gives the wines an elegant structure, finish and balance.”

Still don’t trust Thai wines?

You’re right. Some of Thailand’s grape varietals are as curious as the idea of growing wine in the tropics. But careful. There’s some history. Take for instance Malaga Blanca that accounts for 90% of plantings in the Floating Vineyards – the other 10% is a red grape “pok dum” (Black Queen).

Be careful though with the name “Black Queen” in Thailand. Farmers use the wording “Black Grape” these days – to avoid any hint of Lèse Majesté, as a Thai winemaker told absolutelyBangkok.com.

Malaga Blanca came from the South of France as a gift from Louis XIV to King Narai the Great of Siam. The Pok Dum variety of grape has been traced back to a Portuguese grape. In the mountainous vineyards, Chenin Blanc and Shiraz/Syrah are showing interesting results – while several other varieties of grape are being experimented with.

Then there are Muscat grapes … You’ll sure find your vintage.

Or take Prasit Sriuthairat, who produces high quality red and white wines for the masses at affordable prices. His red Blue Ribbon and white Yellow Ribbon sell for 99 baht a bottle at Foodland.

Khun Prasit uses Black Cardinal or the more beautiful Black Queen for the red wine, Malaga Blanca for the white – and produces a meager 2,000 bottles a month. The capacity though will soon be raised to a monthly 6,000 bottles. His wines sell like hot cakes – so be there when Foodland gets the next batch.

Or talk to food and travel writer Lawrence Civil, the connoisseur of Thai wines. Lawrence makes that oriental juice of fermented grapes palatable to the most serious skeptics.

Tells us Lawrence that traditionally, grapes for winemaking have been grown between the 30th and 50th parallels in both the Northern and Southern hemispheres. Thailand has pioneered the production of what is referred to as “New Latitude” wines, made from grapes grown in a narrow band in the North between the 14th to 18th parallels.

Main problems for winemakers remain the rain and topography. More ideal is a rather dry climate with good natural drainage. Low acidity is a minor problem, most vineyards are able to get good maturity at harvest time with balanced sugar levels.

So be it: If you want to combine a day out in a vineyard with some wine tasting and decent European food, visit the GranMonte estate near Khao Yai, set in 40 acres, with 25 planted with Shiraz, 10 with Chenin Blanc and the remaining with the valuable cash crop of table grapes.

There’s the small shop Montino and the vineyard’s restaurant VinCotto where owner Sakuna Lohithnavy indulges in her passion for cooking.

It’s worth the drive there just for lunch!




Sphere: Related Content

Related posts on absolutelyBangkok.com:

  1. Hail 2010, Year of More Liberal Booze
  2. Gourmet Extravaganza, 10th Edition

March 17, 2008 | Filed Under Being Farang, Food & Drink, Travel & Tourism 

Comments

One Response to “Of Fine Thai Wine”

  1. Wine Harvest Escapade on January 19th, 2009 9:41 am

    [...] +++ You may also want to read our Of Fine Thai Wine. [...]

    Quality comment? Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0

Leave a Reply