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Thailand vs. India
 Thailand is a small country with less than 20 wineries and a history of wine production of only 20 years. Chateau de Loei, started by the late hotelier and construction tycoon, owner of Italthai, the Late Dr. Chaijudh Karnasuta started producing Thai wine in 1995 at the 240 acre property, about 500 km north of Bangkok. However, it's a small operation compared to the attractive and well-managed wineries around Khao Yai and after his death in 2004, his daughter-in-law who is running the winery is reportedly not as enthusiastic and the winery has lost its leadership position.
Thailand has tropical climate, even more difficult than India due to rains. Calling itself a New Latitude country (similar to India), it won 36 medals two months ago at HKIWSC where I have been invited to judge since inception and have participated on 6 occasions continuously! One single winery GranMonte won 25 medals including 2 Golds, 7 Silver and 16 Bronze medals; it also won 2 Trophies. Judges, who blind-tasted their wines were so impressed that a group of about 12 of us decided to visit this winery and the Khao Yai region, during the recent Christmas holidays. http://www.hkiwsc.com
GranMonte Family Vineyards
 Named as a ‘big mountain’ in Italy, GranMonte Family Vineyard was founded in 1999 by Visooth Lohitnavy who had a long experience in working with MNCs. Emboldened by the fact that he grew up in the Khao Yai hilly region, he believed it would be excellent for grape cultivation and bought land 20 years ago when it was only cornfields. The villagers know how to work with tapioca, corn and sugar cane and had to be trained to tend to grapevines, he says.
The winery is about 2 hours away from Bangkok, in the north-eastern part, close to Khao Yai National Park which is a natural destination for tourism. The area came up as Asoke Valley (even though there are no Appellation laws in place yet but the name seems to have struck a chord). The vineyards blend beautifully with the surroundings and the picturesque Khao Yai hills (known as mountains here!). The 36 acre Vineyard has planted international grapes like Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chenin Blanc, Viognier, Verdelho, Durif (Petite Sirah) and Grenache. An experimental section one sees at one corner of the vineyard tour has a few other varieties planted, which are under study with the help of a Japanese university.
Visooth’s daughter Nikki Lohitnavy studied Viticulture and Oenology at the Adelaide University and joined the business in 2008 as the winemaker; 2009 was her first harvest. Visooth has been using consultation from Hubert de Boüard de Laforest, winemaker and owner of Premier Grand Cru Class ‘A’ Chateau Angelus in St. Emilion, with whom Nikki works closely . Only the estate-grown grapes are used for the vinification, of course.
 Besides beautiful landscape, a wine shop selling wine and other local products like honey and wine accessories, you can enjoy dinning at Vinocotto, their 120-cover restaurant, offering fine dining with wine in charming settings. GranMonte maintains a record of the number of visitors and Visooth tells me that about 35,000 eat at the restaurant every year-half of them being expats. In fact, the Menu at the restaurant used to be only European but these tourists preferred local Thai cuisine which has been now added. He also shares the fact that the restaurant and the wine shop have been profitable on their own for many years. Based on his estimates, about 80,000 to 100,000 tourists visit their winery and vineyards. For more information visit www.granmonte.com.
 There are regular visits to the vineyards on a tractor-run buggy that can carry over 25 people. Visit to the winery followed by tasting costs only 300 B ($8). There is a 7- room guest house within the estate that offers a beautiful opportunity to enjoy the vineyard and its surroundings. But we stayed at a 1-year old resort and hotel called Escape which was extremely comfortable and has several facilities within the compound to make for a relaxing wine holiday too that would include visiting wineries like GranMonte at leisure.
Village Farm Winery
 The Khao Yai mountain range is around 100 km long and while on the western edge you have wineries like GranMonte, on the eastern edge you have Village Farm Winery (VFW), our first stop in the morning. It is a smaller winery built around wine tourism. VFW is about 300 kms from Bangkok and takes around 3 to 3.5 hours to reach. Vineyards were planted about 20 years ago (it used to be a fruit farm earlier) but the first wine was released in 2001, according to the manager, a charming lady who spoke English in a nice measured way and was mistaken by most as the owner of the property because of the passion, knowledge and care she showed for the guests - a nice, warm welcome to the world of Thai wines.
 The small winery with about 40,000- bottle production annually has a French winemaker who comes every 2 months. Wines produced are sold mostly in the domestic market with a small portion exported to Japan. The winery has been designed to attract tourists, with an excellent panorama, nature and environment friendly venue, with provision for winery visits, stay, restaurant and a wine and souvenir shop. They hold wine classes regularly and also produce and sell grape- seed oil (I could not help but remember Sula back home!). Tourists from Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Philippines- all non-wine producing countries - are drawn to the farm/winery as visitors though she could not confirm the total tourist traffic- but estimated at around 5000 a month. It was quite busy when we were there despite it being a working day-but Christmas holiday season nevertheless.
A fabulous lunch was laid out with two of their red wines (unfortunately, I had been taken sick so I could not enjoy my first Thai cuisine of the trip but I did hear orgasmic praises. The nimbu-soda I requested was really delicious and helped stabilise my system and return to normal later).
VFW has experimented with a few varietals including cabernet sauvignon but only 2 varietals, made from the two most successful varietals of the region, Chenin Blanc and Syrah, are popular. The ‘Village Thai’ label sells for 1750 Bahts (about $50), and the more premium Chateau des Brumes (Thais seem to be quite enamoured by the fancy French names just like the Chinese and even a few Indian wine producers) the 2006 vintage of which was served with the Thai lunch, was delicious till I was told about the price - an incredible 3950 B ($110!). That sounded crazy but apparently it is all sold out primarily at the winery itself, we were told. In fact, we could not taste the Chenin Blanc as it was already sold out.
We were met here by Visooth Lohitnavy, who is also the President of the Thai Wine Association that has currently 7 wineries as its members, including 6 from the Khao Yai region. That explains the importance and popularity of the region in which the future of premium Thai wines seem to lie. As Nikki had later explained, further North it is cooler but humid and is not ideal for wine grapes.
www.villagefarm.co.th
J J Vineyards
Our next short stop was JJ Vineyards, on the way to GranMonte, about an hour away. If vineyards at VFW are impressive, being at 450-500 m high, these vineyards are even higher and have different soil than GranMonte( at 350 m a.s.l.) which is managing the vineyards and plans to make wines for the owner who is a friend and also use half for their own labels. As Nikki says, ‘the quality and characteristics of those vineyards is totally different and we shall have wines of different character under the label when we release.’
Alcidini
 On the way to GranMonte, we stopped at a very small boutique winery Alcidini, where we are welcomed by beautiful sheep from New Zealand playing in a separate area, very healthy looking avocado trees with fruit hanging from them, waiting to ripen. The vineyards on the slopes to our left are reminiscent of European vineyards on the slopes to garner sun rays. The fruit, Muscat Blue was covered with white nylon nets. ‘Birds, animals (and humans who are tempted to break bunches of ripening grapes as they pass by) are the enemies for ripening grapes,'  says Supot Krijpipudh, owner and winemaker of the Alcidini winery. He says he is retired but still comes to the boutique winery regularly. His love as a winemaker is infectious. He is also the Secretary of the Thai Wine Association.
Supot has been growing vines since 2001 in 20 acres of land and had the first commercial release in 2005. The prices of wines vary from 490-790 Bahts, though it doesn’t pose a competitive threat to GranMonte. Most of the wines are sold at the property. We tasted 5 wines- Rose (Low-in-tannic Muscat Blue and Syrah blend), Syrah, Syrah-Muscat Blue  blend, another Syrah and a Recioto. The Syrah Muscat red blend was an interesting wine made with Solera method. The Solera was started in 2005 and the last one to go in the blend has been 2011. Jammy on the nose, it was a very pleasant wine, priced at 670 B ($18).
http://www.alcidini.com
Wine Laws and Thai Wine Association
Just like in India there are no wine laws in Thailand; in fact it’s worse. Imported wines can also be mixed with the local wines. Self-restraint and reputation of the producer is important. In order to ensure quality improvements, seven producers have formed the Thai Wine Association in which six are from Khao Yai, including the three we visited. The members meet at each other’s wineries in turn and exchange information and discuss relevant issues regularly. To be a member they have to meet the requirement of the Charter which includes correct declaration on the label. For instance, as Visooth explains ‘15% of grapes/must/bulk wine can be imported ingredients but it must be declared on the back of the label.’
How can they ensure that the producers are honest about what they declare? As Visooth smiles widely, Nikki takes over, explaining, ‘we meet regularly and have inspection of each other’s properties and records. We know the grapes crushed and the wine produced. If the production figure is significantly out of line, it means something is not right. Right?!’ I wondered if this type of self-governance was feasible in India. But these producers seemed to be satisfied.
Other wineries worth a visit
 Another winery we didn’t visit but which is the oldest in the region (founded in 1997 though the website claims it was established in 1989) and well-known in the Khao Yai region, is PB Valley Estate with a total vineyard area of around 1250 acres within the huge 6250- acre property. 80% of grapes grown are wine grapes. Situated 150 kms northeast of Bangkok on the edge of the Khao Yai National Park, it can be reached in 2 hours from Bangkok and is quite close to GranMonte. It claims to be the largest and most technologically advanced winery in South East Asia and the birthplace of Khao Yai as a wine region which is increasingly attracting wine tourists-both domestic and international.
Siam Winery, whose Monsoon Valley labels won the other 11 medals (1 Gold, 3 Silver and 7 Bronze) at the HKIWSC 2015 in Hong Kong, is located southwest of Bangkok, an hour away from the city. It started wine production in 2004 and makes about 30,000 cases half of which are exported to Europe and Japan. Grapes are sourced from their vineyard in Hua Hin Hills. It also claims to be South East Asia’s largest winery with an incredible 30 million liters annual capacity (that is over 3.5 times the current production of Sula, the largest wine company in India!). Certainly worth a visit, especially if time is a constraint to visit the Khao Yai region.www.siamwinery.com
Dichotomy that is Thailand
 There seems to be a dichotomy in Thailand which excels in tourism as a pillar of its economic growth and even the wineries exploit the potential and help tourism. Because of the fast-improved quality, they attract expats-GranMonte has about half the visitors who are expats visiting Thailand. However, cast in a mould similar to that in India, the government continues to take an anti-alcohol stand, clubs wine with liquor, and has restrictive policies and high taxes that prevent the industry from growing and reaching its potential. In any case, best time to visit is November to March when it is dry and less humid.
Single Harvest a year
Most westerners err when they assume that due to the tropical climate, Thailand (and India) harvests two crops a year for wine grapes. Due to prolonged rainy season, it is not practical to have two quality crops and therefore, Thailand also takes out a single crop (like India) for wine grapes but eating grapes have a different story- 2 crops or more are possible and practical and are par for the course.
Wineries of Thailand have a lesson for the Indian wine industry. They pursue the business model of building wineries with facilities like restaurants, wine tours, stay facilities in or around the property with several other related activities and appear to be profitable. Although Sula has become very successful over the past few years in India, and there are wineries like York, Grover, Vallonne who are stepping up their wine tourism efforts, the progress appears tardy due to financial constraints. Perhaps a visit to Thailand and a couple of these wineries might help them change gears faster.
Subhash Arora |