Tropical Thailand may not conjure up visions of vineyards but on a recent trip to the north of the country, Carolynne Dear enjoyed a tantalising tasting at GranMonte Estate
The surrounding hills at GranMonte create a cooler microclimate suitable for viticulture
There aren’t many vineyards in the world that have to repair their vines after a visit from wandering elephants. However, GranMonte, in northern Thailand, can make just such a claim.
“There’s not much you can do to stop them,” admits Mimi Lohitnavy, daughter of the wine label’s founders. “I mean, look at the size of them. They did once have a munch on the grapes, but I don’t think they liked them very much.”
Fortunately elephants trampling the vines isn’t a common occurrence, although a herd did turn up during the filming of the vineyard’s promotional video, which has resulted in some dramatic footage for visitors.
Lohitnavy heads up GranMonte’s marketing team at the award-winning vineyard on the edges the two thousand square kilometres of steaming jungle that make up Khao Yai National Park. Traditionally, this hot and humid corner of the world might be thought of as an unlikely location for a vineyard, but it turns out so-called ‘new latitude’ wines are making quite a splash these days.
Grapes were first introduced into Thailand during the reign of King Narai in the 17th century when Louis XIV of France sent vine specimens over with his ambassador. However, the grapes were used as fruit right up until the 20th century, when a nascent wine industry began to develop.
Today's Thai wines, like other new latitude varieties, are made from grapes grown in an area of the world previously believed to be unfavourable for wine production. Typically, viticulture works best in locations where temperatures hover between 12 or 13 and 21 degC; geographically speaking, these would be regions between 30 and 50 degrees latitude on either side of the equator. However, wine growers outside of these locations are now proving that vines are more adaptable than previously thought; the theory goes that if you plant vines in a new environment, chances are they will conform to the changed conditions.
Mimi Lohitnavy heads up the marketing team at the family run estate
The family run GranMonte Estate is proof that this theory works. Lohitnavy's older sister, Nikki, is responsible for making the wine, having graduated in oenology in 2008 at the University of Adelaide, Australia, and returning to the family vineyard in northern Thailand as the country’s only fully-qualified winemaker. She is the oenologist, winemaker and general manager at the estate and a world-leading expert on tropical viticulture.
Creating the GranMonte wines has been an experimental affair. Although technically the vineyard is in a tropical location, the local microclimate is cool and dry owing to the sloping hills of the Asoke Valley that cradles the GranMonte Estate. The vineyard sits around 350m above sea level and, as it turns out, is perfectly located for growing high-quality grapes for winemaking.
Nevertheless, establishing a vineyard in the tropics was a bold move, agrees Lohitnavy. The land, originally used for corn and cashew crops, was bought by Lohitnavy’s parents, Visooth and Sakuna, in the 1990s and work immediately began transforming it into one of Thailand’s first vineyards. It took a lot of trial and error and hard work studying vines and soil types and then crossing their fingers and importing the vines from around the world.
The vineyard was officially opened in 2009 and today produces around 120,000 bottles a year with a view to raising that figure to 300,000 over the next few years. GranMonte has won hundreds of awards (including Best Wine From South East Asia at the Hong Kong International Wine and Spirit Competition 2023) and has been named Best National Producer - Thailand at Europe’s foremost international wine competition, AWC Vienna, no fewer than four times.
Estate-cultivated grape varieties include syrah (their best-seller), cabernet sauvignon, chenin blanc, viognier, semillon, verdelho and grenache. The estate also produces a crement, a rose, a sparkling rose and a housemade grappa.
GranMonte tours include the impressive air conditioned winery
Visitors are shown round the boutique estate by electric buggy. We pass meticulously maintained and labelled rows of vines including the oldest, 24-year-old chenin blanc vines, and the more recently planted experimental rows of Portuguese alvarinho grapes. Roses decorate the beginning of each row, not for their aesthetics, but as a first indicator of disease. The estate also has its own weather station for Nikki to keep a careful eye on humidity, rain and temperature.
Tour over, we’re led into the Asoke Valley Winery to see where the magic happens; Lohinavy carefully walks us through the winemaking process, from fermentation to oak barrel-ageing.
Finally, we’re taken to the Montino Cellar Door tasting room where we have the opportunity to taste four premium GranMonte wines paired with cheese and crackers. The cool-climate wine made at GranMonte in not high in alcohol and has an easy drinking Alcohol by Volume of 12 to 14%. The four new releases on the Summer Tasting Menu included a 2021 Chenin Blanc, a 2024 Rose, a 2022 Durif and a 2021 Syrah.
Visitors can also have lunch at the onsite restaurant, VinCotto, and the estate also offers cottages in the vineyards if you fancy an overnight stay. At harvest time in February guests are invited to get involved picking the grapes and joining in with the harvest events and festivities. Winter has been chosen as the optimum time of year to harvest grapes in Thailand as it avoids the rainy season and, to some degree, the heat. Harvesting also takes place at night when it’s cooler.
After 25 years of hard work, GranMonte is these days exporting its wines to the finest dining tables. One-Michelin starred Potong and Michelin Guide Restaurant Nusara, who ranked at 17 and six respectively at Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2024, are just two Bangkok-based restaurants that have GranMonte on their wine lists. Wine connoisseurs globally are starting to view Thai wine as one to watch.
Having guzzled a particuarly good Cremant with lunch, the estate's piece de resistance, I would agree that if New Latitude wines are breaking into the mainstream, bring it on.
Asia Family Traveller was a guest of GranMonte Estate, staying at nearby InterContinental Khao Yai Resort.
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Read our review of InterContintental Khao Yai Resort
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