Guide to wine tasting in Thailand

by Jessica Festa on

While Thailand isn’t typically thought of as a destination for wine-lovers, there are actually various opportunities in the country to experience vineyards, wineries, and tastings. Whether you want to explore a Thai vineyard on the back of an elephant, try a one-of-a-kind local wine, or have a sommelier guide you through a 10-course wine pairing under a candle jungle waterfall, you can use this guide to help you find the best in vino that Thailand has to offer during your next visit.

Hua Hin Hills Vineyard

Located on a former elephant corral, the fertile sand, slate, and cool ocean breeze make this a prime area for grape-harvesting. Huan Hin Hills Vineyard rests peacefully in a hill and jungle setting, close to the Myanmar border and a convenient stop on the way to the Huay Monkol temple and the Pala U waterfall. In you are staying in downtown Hua Hin, the vineyard operates a daily shuttle that leaves from Market Village at 10:30AM and 3PM (about $9-$10 round-trip).

The vineyard takes up over 560 acres, and produces an array of Monsoon Valley vino varieties, including Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Chenin Blanc, Colombard, Muscat, Tempranillo, and Sangiovese. In fact, Hua Hin Hills is the only vineyard in Thailand to harvest the Sangiovese grape, which has hints of red berries. There are a few different ways visitors can sample the wines. First of all, there is the The Sala Wine Bar & Bistro, which features wine and food pairings as well as educational opportunities to learn more about winemaking. The other option is to sign up for a wine tasting experience, which starts at about $9 to sample 3 wines, and goes to about $41 to try 5 wines and pair them with tapas. Other unique and fun vineyard experiences offered include painting wine bottles, playing Pétanque, or exploring the vineyards via elephant, mountain bike, or jeep.Siam Winery

Siam Winery, which is affiliated with Hua Hin Hills Vineyards, is the largest winery in South East Asia and has a staff of over 1,000 that includes diverse and knowledgeable people from German winemakers to farmers to oenologists. They operate under a New Latitudes Wine perspective, which is basically a new way of looking at wine. The ideology looks at past beliefs about wine creation and combines them with innovation, new technology, and modern discoveries. Winemaker Kathrin Puff explains, “The New Latitude wines teach the right to be wrong. They turn the wine world up-side down. Whilst most wine books refer to the 30th to the 50th latitude as the wine growing country belt, countries like Thailand and India now prove this to be wrong.”

The winery is located about 45 minutes west of central Bangkok and offers 2-hour tours that include a guided tour of the facility, 3 tastings with cheese and crackers, homemade grape juice, and a souvenir to take home. Tours cost about $16 ($6 if you’re under 20 years of age and cannot drink the wine) and must be booked in advance by emailing winerytour@siamwinery.com.

Floating Vineyards

Also owned by Siam Winery, the floating vineyards are a unique way to experience wine tasting in Thailand. While they’re not actually floating, as you can see in the photo on the right, the 1,000 acres of vineyards are situated on islands along canals. What’s really interesting here is that the vineyard kind of acts as an optical illusion. From an arial point of view, the vineyards actually appear to be bouyant, while a closer look will show what’s really going on. The unique landscape makes for an unusual harvest and production process, which you can learn more about through a visit. Make sure to sample white wine from the Malaga Blanc grapes and red wine from the plum-tasting Pokdum grapes, which are what the vineyard is known for. The vineyards are located about an hour southwest of Bangkok in the Chao Phraya Delta near the the Gulf of Siam.

PB Valley Khao Yai Winery

The PB Valley Khao Yai Winery produces 600,000 bottles of wine per year and the Founder, Dr. Piya Bhirombhakdi, recently received a South East Asia Wine Pioneer Award for his work in wine culture in Asia. Their vineyard is located in the northeastern part of Thailand, in the hillsides near Khaoyai National Park. The chilly temperatures, surrounding mountains that protect the vines, and little rainfall help make the area perfect for grape cultivation. PB produces three ranges of wine, including the Sawasdee Range, PB Reserve Range, and the Pirom Khao Yai Reserve Range. Visitors can sample these varieties through educational tasting tours of their vineyard and winery. Click here to view the various package options.

The Sarojin

While The Sarojin isn’t a winery or vineyard, it definitely caters to the wine enthusiast. This boutique 5-star resort is located in Khao Lak near Phuket and features many unique opportunities to sample the region’s best wines. For the past 4 years, the resort’s wine cellar, which boasts over 160 old and new world wines, has been given the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence. Sam Bonifant, the Wine Director at The Sarojin, explains, “The old principles of what went with what were really quite limited and thus the challenge is to find what is best for the myriad of flavors which modern cuisine has to offer.” To help guests experience these unique varieties, the resort offers degustation dinners with up to 10 courses each paired with wines by the resident sommelier, Dawid Koegelenberg. What’s really unique about these dinners is that they don’t just take place in an upscale restaurant, but literally anywhere you desire, whether it be under a jungle waterlit illuminated by candles, on a beach with the ocean’s waves creating natural background music, or on your own private island. If you want to expand your wine knowledge, The Sarojin offers wine lectures both privately and as a scheduled weekly activity for a group environment. There are also cooking classes to help you enhance the culinary side of your vino pairings.

[photos via sherrattsam, Siam Winery, Rivard, PB Valley Kao Yai Winery, The Sarojin]

Photo of the Day – Aquarium visitors

by Jeremy Kressmann on

Aquariums rock. Anytime you put humans in front of a giant tank of water filled with marine life, the effect is typically the same: profound amazement. Children (and even adults) will stop and stare, jaws will drop and heartbeats will calm. The best aquarium photos, like this one by Flickr user halvora at the Bangkok Aquarium, are able to capture those little moments of epiphany and calm that occur as we gaze into these alien worlds of color and movement.

Taken any great travel photos you’d like to share with the world? Why not add them to our Gadling group on Flickr? We might just pick one of yours as our Photo of the Day.

Video of The Day: Bangkok featured in skate video

by Elizabeth Seward on

I just saw beautiful images of Bangkok in a, what turned out to be, surprising skate video. BillabongASIA’s Geng Jakkarin is profiled in this video titled “I Skate Because”. And while Jakkarin’s story is moving and his skate tricks are, well, sick, I couldn’t help but fixate on the Bangkok sights and scenes within the short film. The video starts off with a shot of a painted train over a track that states, ‘Bangkok, City of Life’, and the self-described vivacious city’s stunning scenery unfolds in the background of this video from there. Storm clouds, graffiti, Palm Trees, and the sun setting on the water-fronted horizon act as a backdrop to slick skate moves and a the personal story of just one exceptionally talented skater from Thailand. But sometimes this is the way I like to see things–to experience them in my periphery, to imprint them subconsciously as the forefront demands my attention, as I drift away from the main point and toward the buzzing beautiful background.

Eight interesting facts about North Korea’s airline

by Tom Johansmeyer on

What do you know about Air Koryo? Probably not much. The state-run airline for North Korea, it’s the only realistic way you can fly into the country, unless you have some sort of crazy commando resources at your disposal. Of course, there’s a lot you have to do before booking your ticket, and getting a visa can be quite difficult for Americans and other westerners. If you do make it through the red tape though, you’ll find yourself with more options than you realized.

So, ready to book your trip to Arirang and sample the beer and pizza of the most reclusive nation on the planet? Here’s what you need to know about the airline that will take you there:

%Gallery-105693%1. More destinations than you’d expect: the Beijing-Pyongyang route is the one for which Air Koryo is “famous,” but the state-sponsored airline actually connects to eight other cities: Moscow Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Shenyang, Shanghai, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Kuwait City. Of course, if you want to use these cities to enter North Korea, you’ll still need to jump through the many hoops necessary to secure a visa.

2. Road warriors don’t get squat: are you a frequent flier to North Korea? Well, don’t expect much in exchange for your loyalty. While airlines around the world offer rewards programs, a mileage run on Air Koryo is worthless, as the carrier doesn’t have a program, according to a comment it made on its Facebook page.

3. A new home: as of July 15, 2011, the airline’s new terminal at Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang is open for business! The airline claims on Facebook, “The new terminal features modernised facilities for luggage, security, customs, border control and the list goes on to an extent.”

4. Mongolia may be next: it’s always hard to tell when Air Koryo is going to add a route, but this comment to a prospective customer offers some hope: “Flights to Uanbator have been tossed up for a while now, since there is a decent amount of DPRK citizens traveling to Mongolia for a number of reasons. Also vice versa. We havn’t [sic] heard of any flights for August, but we will make some inquiries.”

5. Kuwait’s on the map for a reason: it may not be as busy as the New York-to-London route, but Pyongyang and Kuwait City seem to comprise an important city-pair for Air Koryo. According to the person operating the Air Koryo Facebook page, “Between 5 and 10,000 North Korean workers currently reside in Kuwait. These numbers change weekly with the flights by Air Koryo now enabling the DPR Korean direct flights to Pyongyang.”

6. True dialogue in social media: social media marketers have always discussed the importance of “dialogue” via social media, rather than generating revenue. Well, Air Koryo is a fantastic model. A user responded to the above claim about North Koreans living in Kuwait, “‎between 5 and 10000″ … Wow, that is an accurate answer !” The airline’s intended range was probably “between 5,000 and 10,000,” but the fan appears to have a fetish for the exact. Showing a bit of style, Air Koryo replied, “We’re [not] exactly demographers here, so exact figures are beyond us. Sorry.” The missing word in the response makes the whole exchange even funnier.

7. Online check-in: okay, this is not in Air Koryo’s future, probably because the carrier has a different set of priorities. According to SFGate: “‘You kidding right?’ Air Koryo responded. “There are many things to do before even looking at ‘Online check-in’ such as actually creating a website.'”

8. Don’t expect much love from the cabin crew: in the United States, you only need to worry about bad service … and the occasional meltdown. In North Korea, the flight attendants will great you with such pleasantries as “I hate America!” But, they do follow it with, “What would you like to drink today, sir?”

Sir?! Now that’s service!

[photos via Wikipedia]

Thai country music at Bangkok market

by Elizabeth Seward on


Have I ever been to Thailand? Nope. Would I drop everything to go tomorrow if I could? Yep. In fact, maybe I’ll head there tomorrow. Thailand’s culture has always fascinated me and photos of the country have always drawn me in. But it appears as though the United States‘ culture might have perhaps magnetized some Thai residents.

Check out this video, taken at the Chatuchak Market in Bangkok, Thailand. At around :47 seconds in the the video, the camera man stumbles onto some Thai dancers and a musician who are playing what sounds to me like Luk thung music–sometimes referred to as Thai’s country music. Luk thung is often compared to country music found in the United States. But considering the American Flag in focus, it’s hard to tell where Luk thung music ends and American country/bluegrass music begins. Do you have an opinion on what these Thai market-goers are actually playing? Let us know in the comments if so.

Either way, the banjo player is good.