Thailand
Once known as Siam, Thailand is located in South East Asia
at the heart of the Indochina Peninsula with Malaysia to its South, Myanmar to
its West, Laos to its East and Cambodia to its South-East. Thailand is
certainly not a well known wine producing country, and many people are
surprised to discover that wine is made here at all, however, vineyards were
being planted in Thailand as long ago as the 1960s although they were
originally designated for the production of table grapes.Over the last forty or so years, more vinifera wine
varieties have also been grown despite the belief that their cultivation could
never prove successful since the tropical climate enjoyed by Thailand would
mean that fungal diseases and rot would flourish in the humidity and heat which
is found here. Another supposedly insurmountable problem lay in the lack of
diurnal temperature variations, which was also believed to be an insurmountable
challenge to the possibility of any high quality wines being produced. Yet,
despite the fact that these elements remain present, technology and adaptations
carried out to winegrowing techniques have meant that the negative effects that
these elements have caused have now been minimized.
There are many different grape varieties planted in Thai
vineyards, but by far the most commonly seen is the table grape from southern
France, Malaga Blanc. This grape is believed to have come to Thailand back in
the 1600s, having been given as a gift from a French diplomat to the king.
Since the 1970s, Cardinal and Black Muscat have been used in the production of
Thai wines and more recently, other varieties which have been propagated
locally including Pokdum have joined them. Some international varieties of
grapes including Shiraz and Chenin Blanc have also been successfully grown here
and trials of growing Sauvignon Blanc and Tempranillo are also under way...
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