Thursday, 21 July 2016

My Oh My - Myanmar Makes Wine

Well, it is wine (made from grapes grown with the intention of being wine as we know it). It looks the part. It's been championed by some pioneering folks from Old World wine regions (those places who've been making wine since the beginning of wine time which could just as well be the beginning of any time worth noting in my opinion) who, I'm guessing saw a window of opportunity in the impact of climate change on previously inconceivable wine growing regions.

Is it particularly good wine? Let's say I wouldn't miss the walk from Kalaw to Inle Lake to spare a day to visit based on the wine just yet. But, given time, I don't see why that won't change as they figure out things out a bit more - like which varietals are best for the area & techniques are best to suit the conditions. They do, at least, green harvest before the rainy season in July to ensure better quality grapes for the February harvest - as with India, temperatures never drop low enough to allow the vines to fall into dormancy.
Also, they've not chosen to focus solely on Bordeaux varietals for their "starter" vines, more interesting grapes abound including Muscat, Tempranillo, Dornfelder & Shiraz. With very little wine drinking culture in the country, perhaps this allowed more creativity & less consumer demand driven decisions on planting. Perhaps that will change as the category grows. Perhaps the wine producing industry will expand from the current 2 existing wineries, Red Mountain & Ayathaya (established in 1999 under German ownership) & perhaps the latter will continue to import South African grape must for their second label.
For now - at least the setting is very pretty.












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