Our winemaker friend was in town, visiting from the Napa Valley in California. Immediately we thought of taking him to the Khao Yai Wine Trail – which features a number of wineries located near this National Park. Our destination was Granmonte Vineyards an established winery in Asoke Valley – about 3 hours from where we live. Along with the winery, they also run the Vincotto Restaurant (delicious Mediterranean cuisine) and a guesthouse.
The winery was established by visionary Visooth Lohitnavy. Granmonte has already won a number of both tourism and wine awards in Thailand and at International wine competitions. Visooth’s daughter, “Nikki” started making wine for them in her early 20’s and is Thailand’s first woman winemaker.
The last time we were in this part of Thailand was several years ago – construction on new projects continues at an incredible pace. New resorts, weekend proximity to Bangkok and a fascination with Italy has spurred additional European style projects. Toscana Valley is a huge complex all built in a European style on the side of a hill, Palio is a Italian styled shopping complex and in the general region a new shopping area has been built- somehow modeled after Verona Italy.
This time of year is popular with Thai tourists looking for some cooler weather as well as fun family activities including petting sheep, drinking coffee (lots of coffee shops in the hills here), orchid farms as well as all the natural beauty and plenty of activities offered in Khao Yai National Park.
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- Leaning Tower of Pisa at Toscana Village
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- GranMonte Tasting Room
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- Dasada Flower Farm
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- Tuscany in Italy
I didn’t know that grapes could do well in such a sweltering tropical environment … how was the wine?
It helps they are growing the grapes in the mountains (slightly cooler) but still quite warm. The wine is surprisingly good – especially their red wines. It all starts with the grapes of course. But they have a modern winery using latest wine making techniques and good French oak.
Sounds interesting. Will surely visit that place again
Yep, we get up there every year or so – sometimes its clear sometimes its quite hazy. But its always busy with mostly tourists from Bangkok.
Enjoy of the sense of “place” that a beautiful island such as this one brings 🙂