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Thai Wine A few years ago I was in a small store in Koh Samui buying a bottle of wine and I came across a Thai wine. I bought that bottle and I have to admit it did not immediately fill me with joy. So since that introduction, I studiously avoided Thai wine. However a month or so ago I trundled into the Ninth Café, a decent eatery on Soi Langsuan, and was surprised to find a section in the wine list entitled 'Thai Wines'. I chose a bottle of Chateau des Brumes and was astounded at the quality of this red wine.
There has been a wine industry of sorts in Thailand since the 1960s. Much of it was small scale based mostly in Loei Province up in the north of the country and in the Kanchanaburi River Kwai area to the west. It was in 1992 that things began to move at a faster pace when the Thai Prime Minister, himself a wine fan, granted licences to the nation's wine producers. With criteria that grapes should have been cultivated for a minimum of five years, and that the producer should have at least 100 acres of vineyard - there are still less than a dozen producers of wine in Thailand . There are wines such as the Chateau de Loei and Khao Yai wines, producing a red made from Shiraz (amongst others) and a white from Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc and Colombard. The Siam Winery, near Samut Sakorn, source their grapes from four areas in Thailand . As well as the two areas mentioned above, there is also Pak Chong, north east of the capital, Bangkok -and the huge (4000HA) vineyard between Tacheen and the Mekong River area to the south- east. An interesting point about the Siam Winery, which lies south of Bangkok near the coast on the Gulf of Thailand , is that the vineyards are planted in rows separated by canals! Harvesting is done using boats and the looked to all intents and purposes like floating vineyards! Some of the grape varietals are as curious as the idea of growing wine in the tropics. Malaga Blanc accounts for 90% of plantings in the 'Floating Vineyards' - the other 10% is a red grape Pok Dum (Black Queen). Malaga Blanc came from the south of France as a gift from Louis XIV to King Narai the Great of Siam. The Pok Dun variety of grape has been traced back to a Portuguese grape. In the mountainous vineyards, Chenin Blanc and Shiraz are showing interesting results - while several other varieties of grape are being experimented with. I was particularly impressed recently when I tried a Chenin Blanc from Chateau de Loei. It had a full fruit flavour and a nice long taste: the kind of wine I like to drink as an appetitive. It had the viscosity of a good white Burgundy which is praise indeed. I was discussing this wine with a wine merchant friend and I said the downside is that it might be a little sweet for some. But there is an extra dry version he told me, and promptly produced a bottle of it! In addition Chateau de Loei produce a rose using Syrah grapes and a red using Shiraz . Then I found they also make a sparkling wine and a dessert wine. That did not surprise me really as all the fruitiness of the Chenin Blanc just shouted for a dessert wine. The wine that converted me to Thai wine was a Chateau des Brumes made by a interesting winery near Nakhorn Ratchasima. The vineyard is part of the Village Farm, an ecology-based development describing itself as "an active working and entertaining farm where good quality wine grapes and flowers are grown in harmony with nature's beauty. " The winery name, Chateau des Brumes, means 'a place in the morning mist' since the winery is often covered by fog or mist in the morning. Siam Winery launched their premium cuvee Monsoon Valley two years ago. However unlike the other wineries, winemaker Laurent Metge-Toppin was determined to make a different style of wine, a new style of wine, a blend of Thai varietal, especially created to complement spicy Thai food. Two Monsoon Valley wines stand out in this respect. They are Monsoon Valley Red 2544 which is a dry red, a blend of Pok Dum, Syrah and Muscat grapes; and Monsoon Valley White 2544 - a fresh dry white wine made from Malaga Blanc and Colombard grapes. The dates are explained by the use of The Buddhist calendar: 2544 is 2003 in the Christian calendar. In addition, the Monsoon Valley range includes Monsoon Valley Shiraz Special Reserve 2544 - made exclusively from Shiraz grapes and Monsoon Valley Rose. The Khao Yai National Park , about 100 kms north of Bangkok , has several vineyards that welcome visitors as well being an established wine tourism centre. One of the special facts about Thai wine is that it is possible to have two vendages a year and thus these vineyards often produce two vintages in the same year. The results are quite startling with often a striking difference between the vintages of the same year. Unfortunately for Thai wine producers, whilst they do not have to pay the 60% import duty levied on wines produced elsewhere, they do have to pay the 200% excise duty. That means that even Thai wine, in Thailand , looks expensive when compared to retail prices in Europe . So I hope that you, like me, will now look for Thai wine and try it. I am sure that you will be pleasantly surprised and enjoy a glass, or several, of this unlikely tropical product. This article will be published in Bangkok Fine Dining magazine. |
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For me this was quite a find and I set out to find out more about this wine and the vineyard. Of course the first thing I did was ask around and I found few people who knew Thai wine. As one they had had the same Road to Damascus conversion as myself. So now I anxiously search wine lists for Thai wine and in addition have looked for it elsewhere. I found a good selection in Villa supermarket in the Ploenchit centre and even found it on the wine list at the Marriot: all indications that Thai wine is indeed becoming a favoured tipple.