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Hi Guys, first time poster, I am building a home in the Chaing Rai region near Theong My question is, as a serious wine drinker can you buy the Thai wines direct from the vineyards? I have had the Monsoon Red and White from Big C and its ok but pricy and as a tight get almost retired from the UK buying cheaper would be good. Thanks in anticipation. MG
:england:
Yes you can. The vineyard I know has a restaurant where you can buy their wine to take away.
I bought some thai wine once and ended up pouring it over my mothers leg when she got stung by a jellyfish.
PS - I am sure there are better wines then that one! mind you, what do you expect for 100 baht a bottle!
I was given a 2004 'vintage shiraz' from a Thai vineyard somewhere near Khaoyai :)
Upon tasting the flavour was very similar to strong vinegar/mild sulphuric acid and hence 95% of the bottle was left undrunk :(
A few days after the said tasting incident the undrunk bottle was accidently knocked from its position and shattered all over the tiled floor which has subsequently started to degrade :rofl:
The vineyard I am thinking of is in Khao Yai
I'm beginning to think my decision to leave the wine in the vineyard may have been a wise one. One glass in their restaurant was enough for me.
I know you're in the north, but if you ever venture to Bangkok the floating vineyards are well worth a visit and you can end with a wine tasting at Siam Winery...their wines are very drinkable...
have a look here for more info...
There are few growers near Khao Yai...
Chateau des brumes is the best, but for a good wine bottle, min. price is 700 thb at the winery...
Goes up to 2'400 thb for other choices...
They have setup one COOPERATIVE system i have heard, most of the Khao Yai wines and Chateau des brumes are processing in same place for the wine making,the grappes comes from different places...
There was the wine of LOEI, chateau de Loei, i believe, was good for some years but quality dropped form my last tasting...
In Thai Airways, they were serving another Thai wine, 2 years ago, for quite some time, the picture of one old men was on the sticker, this one was drinkable too! Cannot remember the name...
you can drink them, but life is too short for bad wine
Was working at Rayong (Star refinery) a few years ago and near there we went to what looked like a normal run-of -the -mill beach front food stall/restaurant.
The husband of the Thai lady who ran it was a nice old Thai man who spoke bloody near perfect English. We were drinking beer and he came over to have chat .
He brought over a bottle of red wine to share with us - he really just wanted to speak english as he had worked in UK for many years before he retired!
To the point ( im rambling :rofl:)
The wine was as good as I have tasted anywhere and it was Thai !!
I remember he told us it came from near Anthong , and we drank another 2 bottles with him at 150 baht a bottle!
Nearest thing to it IMO is the red that is made on Athos in Greece- full bodied ,dry and around 13% alc!!!
Any clues where I can get some now ??? :)
Im sure that there must be some good little Thai numbers out there as Happyman has divulged its just that Im a tad nervous to expose my taste buds to anything near as foul as my last experience. :(
However on a happier note I have drank 'Great wall of China' Chinese red wine 1998 vintage and this was lovely so theres hope yet ... :)
I've only brought myself to drink Thai wine a few times and never had anything worth drinking a second time. That surprises me a vineyard and winery would be near Angthong as this is very hot and dry country, doesn't seem suitable for producing wines.Quote:
Originally Posted by Happyman
The Chinese wines are just barely now getting drinkable, and they've been at this for more than 20 years including Joint venturing with French and other winemakers.
If you get the name of a good Thai wine, I'd love to hear it because I'm still skeptical.
Every Thai wine I have tried has tasted like a home brew variety.
Some are quite drinkable but none of them deserve to be called good.
How come the Cambodian stuff is so much better ?
Did the French teach them something
Quote:
Originally Posted by chintheeI've only brought myself to drink Thai wine a few times and never had anything worth drinking a second time. That surprises me a vineyard and winery would be near Angthong as this is very hot and dry country, doesn't seem suitable for producing wines.Quote:
Originally Posted by Happyman
The Chinese wines are just barely now getting drinkable, and they've been at this for more than 20 years including Joint venturing with French and other winemakers.
If you get the name of a good Thai wine, I'd love to hear it because I'm still skeptical.
Maybe he said he got it from Anthong rather than it was made there.
Have emailed a friend at Star and asked him to find out :)
I bought a bottle of red in Vietnam and it was pretty good for a bottle of cheap plonk. I've no idea what vineyard it was from though.
A serious wine drinker? If you're contemplating drinking Thai wine, I don't think so......Quote:
Originally Posted by Mas Gib
...I didn't want to state the obvious...diplomat that I am....Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir BurrA serious wine drinker? If you're contemplating drinking Thai wine, I don't think so......Quote:
Originally Posted by Mas Gib
there is a Winery in Ban Chiang near Udon, its my wifes home town, so I called in there to sample a drop. They were not good:( but the codger that runs it was very nice man so brought a couple of bottles and gave them to the relatives, they were happy with it but still preferred Lao Kao,
Try the 2 litre bottles at Northern farms or macro, it's not bad priced 400+. There's a shop in Chiang Rai near the old Thai airways, 5lts for 800+, a friend said it's OK.
^ OK is a scary term to use in regards to Thai wine, very, very scary ...:)
the Khao Yai region seems to be where it's happening (there are IIRC two other wine growing regions in the country too). just off Route 2 from Saraburi heading north.
The wines vary - the biggest problem is that the vines are still quite young, so it'll take a few more years before the best the area has to offer comes along. In the meantime I've found a few good wines up there. PB Valley does a nice Shiraz (2001). Granmonte makes a great Chenin Blanc, which is now our house pour. They do one good red too, but I've forgotten which one it is (the others I've tried weren't up to it). Actually, whilst the reds are good, they could still do with another year or two in the bottle.
Granmonte was awarded 6th most promising vineyard globally a couple of years ago in one of the wine-trade rags, so there's certainly a future for the region. They have a good restaurant there too, VinCotto (I think there's also one at PB Valley).
I've tried some wines from one of the other regions, but they were, to quote Monty Python, "not a wine for drinking, but a wine for laying down and avoiding"!
None of the Thai wine represents good value for money, sadly, as the taxes are so high. We buy partly as I like the idea of supporting local wineries.
Oh, and I find it a bit sad that both vineyards have decided to cork bottles rather than go with the much more efficient screw-tops that are often used nowadays. Misplaced snob-value I suppose. I've had more "corked" bottles from there than I would usually expect - no doubt in part caused by the the heat drying the corks out. It's no good storing them correctly at home if they've been stored incorrectly at source.
The steaks there are also good! Chokchai Farm is the largest cattle rearer in the country, and the steaks I've had from them are some of the best I've had anywhere - certainly better than anything else domestically-produced I've found in Thailand. Just don't eat at their restaurant though: whilst they know how to cook a lump of meat, they butchered (in the other sense) everything else on the plate. I've heard a similar complaint about their restaurant in Bangkok too. The farm is also a great place to take the kids - they can milk a cow, make ice-cream, ride horses - that kind of stuff. There's also a boutique resort there, sleeping in air-conditioned tents.
Noodles.
Thanks for your help and advice, as previously stated the Monsoon wine was ok, perhaps I am to optimistic in my quest in looking to find it cheaper than Big C!
I have had the Thai paint striper some call wine but one lives in hope and I do look forward to exploring the region fully.
MG