Ken Pearce travels to the hills of Khao Yai to savour the wine and scenic beauty of Village Farm Winery

Photos by Kevin Pearce

It all seems slightly surreal. I’m being driven out of Bangkok. The traffic is surprisingly light, perhaps because it’s a February holiday weekend. We speed along a well maintained highway 304. I’m heading for a vineyard and a winery. A vineyard? A winery! I have to pinch myself. Can that be right? Was I sober when I accepted an invitation from some friends the previous evening to visit “Chateau Des Brumes” less than three hours drive from Bangkok? Surely I am being taken for a ride in more senses than one!

No, that’s absolutely right I’m heading for Chateau des Brumes. …. I remember my schoolboy French. “La Brume.” Mist…… The Chateau in the Mists, aka the Village Farm Winery; a Boutique winery in the cool mountain air of Wang Nam Keow, Nakhon Ratchasima, about 230 kms North East of Bangkok.

“Chateau des Brumes.” It suggests a Domaine in France: A Country House of some standing. Vineyards. An estate that has developed a natural beauty over the centuries, making and bottling its own wines. But we are in Thailand and about to be enthralled by an experience to remember. We are about to meet a remarkable man who is doing something very similar here with such a sensitivity for preserving and enhancing the natural beauty of the countryside,  releasing some of its potential to improve the lives of those who live off it through sympathetic and very thoughtful environmental management.

Khun Viravat Cholvanich is a very successful businessman, an engineer of considerable ability and an architect. Patience is Khun Viravat’s virtue. Charming, friendly, unassuming even, but with a giant firmness of purpose in what he is doing. He is not looking for the immediate return or killings on the stock market.  He has a dream – a vision – and he is making it work. His lifelong love of wine, its enjoyment and its production, started as a young architectural student in Sweden where he was introduced to the pleasure of drinking it. And this architect’s vision and imagination allied to his respect for the countryside, has enabled him to ‘design’ an estate of benefit to him and the local farmers which has ‘evolved’ and will continue to grow, naturally and unhurriedly, into beautiful vineyards, orchards and plantations blending harmoniously into the natural habitat.

It is most definitely not a ‘development’ in any negative sense of that word.  The Village Farm along with its larger neighbour, The Village Cellar Estate, has matured quietly to create a uniquely beautiful landscape. It is a working winery, a farm, a resort and spa. Vineyards, orange orchards, olive groves, coffee and sweet corn plantations, all blend in with meadows, forests and lakes – a rural paradise to treasure, where the visitor will experience the tranquillity and diversity of Thai country life lost to many in today’s busy rush. In Khun Viravat’s vision it is, “Half way to Heaven,” and he proposes to expand that concept into the careful and sympathetically slow development of a beautiful hill on The Village Cellar estate into an area to be known as, “Les Fleurs,” (a name inspired by his flagship wine) affording both great vistas and pleasant seclusion.

It is February 13^th, Chinese New Year. We arrive at the Village Farm Winery on a small ridge directly overlooking Highway 340 at Wang Nam Keow in the early afternoon to be greeted by Khun Viravat with a delicious glass of chilled, pure grape juice. We have come to spend the weekend at the estate and to enjoy a dinner to celebrate, that very evening, the start of this year’s grape harvest at The Village Farm. The harvest of the main vineyard, some 18 kms away at the 1000 acre estate known as The Village Cellar, will commence and be celebrated with a grand dinner exactly a fortnight later on February 27^th.  Dinners, wine tastings and appreciations, presentations and lectures on viticulture and winemaking, classical musical evenings, are all part of a continuous programme throughout the year in celebration of the enjoyment of wine.

There is just time enough to have a very quick look at the attractive wooden buildings housing the cellar shop, restaurant and showpiece wine-tasting area of the Village Barn, the first major building nearest the entrance, beyond a parcel of land with bunches of teasingly ripe purple grapes on the vine. Then we take a short wander to The Cliff Cottage, another attractively designed wooden complex, guest rooms and country spa at one with its wooded surroundings, with relaxing views of the valley below. The small and inviting ‘infinity’ pool here proved too much of an attraction for one of our party who, on the spur of the moment, decided to go for it and have a quick, cooling dip before returning to the restaurant for a light lunch and driving on for a further half hour to The Village Cellar and our rustically simple, comfortable rooms. A perfect spot for an escape to nature. But first we must drive back to The Village Barn for the evening’s festivities.

The evening programme is meticulously planned to enhance the “wine experience.” It commenced at 5.30 with an introductory talk and wine tasting hosted by Khun Viravat who introduced a selection of the quality wines now produced on the estate. And this is seriously good wine by any standards. It’s the result of a unique mix: Terra Rosa soil rich in iron and other minerals, lying above porous volcanic rock, gentle slopes, cool tempering mountain breezes (a combination the French aptly term, “Terroir”); now maturing vines, night harvesting by hand, state of the art winemaking with modern equipment; overseen personally each year by the renowned French Corbieres, Chateau du Roc proprietor and expert winemaker, Jacques Bacou, whose expertise has helped make the prestige wines produced here into international award winners.

First to be sampled by some thirty plus enthusiasts is a Village Cellar Rosé, a pleasantly cool and fragrant syrah rosé. Lovely to quaff al fresco, at way past midnight listening to cicadas, as we did later that night! Next a Village Cellar crisp white Chenin Blanc with delicate citrus flavours. Good with food, or refreshing on its own. Two reds from the Estate followed: A Village Cellar red which would go well, slightly chilled, with Thai food. Fine to drink now but which will cellar well for several more years. And finally, Chateau des Brumes, an 85% Shiraz – 15% Cabernet Sauvignon combination, resulting in a medium bodied firmly structured red whose subtle tannins will ensure a harmoniously smooth drink over time.

The sun set gradually throughout the tasting. The evening dimmed to a lovely orange glow which at that hour owes nothing to the quantity of wine passing our lips. We sipped carefully, aware that there was much more to follow and the evening was still young. At 6.30 we moved onto the grass by The Barn to nibble a large selection of amuse- bouches to compliment several generous glasses of the wines we had just been sampling, and to listen to the trio entertaining us to familiar Austrian and Italian tunes. A great appetiser for the main courses to follow. The rosé syrah and white chenin blanc were particularly good partners for the canapés.

An hour or so of these very pleasant sundowners and we were ready for the call. Mrs. Cholvanich invited all to tuck into the main courses, served under the stars: a convivial feast to remember, fresh salads, soups, fried rice; brochettes of fish or lamb; barbequed beef, chicken and pork, or racks of lamb served with country vegetables, ensured an unforgettable experience – no matter how many glasses one downed! (And there was a lot on offer!) Here the red, Chateau des Brumes – Le Prestige 2005, and Chateau des Brumes Prestige 2004 drank very well with the meats off the grill.

It is soon 9 0’clock. Time to work! We follow the trio pied-piper like into the vineyard by the light of our “miner’s torches” worn on the forehead, armed with freshly distributed secateurs. We set to harvesting fat bunches of syrah grapes in the cool night air. We spread out along the rows, snipping happily, collecting the pickings in plastic baskets. Great fun. But important work for the winery, too. For this is the very first picking of the 2010 harvest, soon to be pressed and fermented into the 2010 vintage. 45 minutes or so denuded our little parcel of vines. The vineyard workers took over to harvest the rest of the plot. The fruits of this labour were 2.7 tonnes of grapes by dawn.

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Our minstrels lead us back tunefully to the treading vats where lovely young ladies are already treading the grapes we had harvested moments before. What a jolly melee! The girls obviously enjoying the fun of treading barefoot and everyone else milling around cameras clicking, laughing at the novelty of it all. Grapes are not tread this way on the estate but Kung Viravat is an enthusiast and is anxious that all should know how the ancient processes originated and compare that to what happens now. The point is well made.

But we are not done yet. There is one final pleasure to come before we head for bed, that last bottle of rosé and a wonderful dawn next morning where the mists in the valleys fittingly justify the label, “Chateau des Brumes.” Back seated at our tables with a selection of cheeses to clear the palate we are invited to take a glass of the estate’s flagship red: Chateau des Brumes – La Fleur 2004. A deep ruby red with an appealing bouquet of forest berries and spice. A lovely full bodied wine whose tannins will ensure continuing subtle complexity for many years, with careful cellaring.

A deeply satisfying taste to end a wonderful evening.

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Village Farm Winery

www.villagefarm.co.th

Tel: 044-228407-8

Fax: 044-228409