A Visit to Chiang Rai Winery

The other day I visited Chiang Rai winery. A beautiful facility surrounded by the lush rugged mountains of Northern Thailand.

We were greeted by smiles, which is obviously common in Thailand and had a very friendly and informative tour of the winery.

I was very interested in visiting this winery, as it is the fruit winery that has the best reputation in Thailand. Their main story is that they make “health wines”. Wines that have health properties in the fruits they use or in the medicinal herbs steeped in the wine.

I tried the off-dry lychee wine that had a great aroma but unfortunately was not very balanced.

The mangosteen wine was interesting and apparently their best seller. However, the wine was a bit vinegary and lacked varietal aroma and taste of what fresh mangosteens demonstrate.

One wine, which I really like and actually purchased, was the “Thai Tokay Wine” made from several kinds of herbs, such as, Doh – Mi – Rue – Lom, Aloe Vera and Santol. An interesting blend made in the sweet style and a nice tropical fruit, honey, almost apricot flavour, which I found alluring.
The winery produces about 40 000 bottles a year and has no problem selling them, mostly to Japanese and Korean tourists.

A trip to Chiang Rai winery proved to be a unique and interesting winery tour that should be done by anyone visiting the area.

The Winemaking Team

Here at Tonghua Winery, we make a lot of wine. The winery has a capacity of about 20 million liters a year and the wine sales are reaching close to that. In order to do this, a lot of organization needs to occur and hard work in order to make sure all this wine ends up tasting good.

I work with a good team of winemakers and senior laboratory technicians who help steer all this wine in the right direction. Together we all work together at developing new and exciting wine products.

My work is cut out for me as I am in the process of revamping and modernizing a lot of the winemaking process structure. Having a new assistant to help me do this is making things a lot easier.

Winemaking is an interesting business and for me working here has been both challenging and also an eye opening as things here in China are done differently than in the “Western” world, but nonetheless it is still just as much fun.

To all the winemakers out there, I raise a glass to the next major wine producing and developing region: China!