Grape and Wine Industris in Thailand

17[j. Inst. Enol. Vific. Yamanashi UniV 23 17~19 1988 ]Grape and Wine Industries In Thailand *KOKIY OKOTSUKA

Climatic and grape growing

I visited four different vineyards and threewineries during my stay (March 27. 1988 toApril 6, 1988) in Thailand.
They harvest grapes an average of 2.5 times
a year in Thailand. According to the common
knowledge of viticulture in traditional wineproducing countries including Japan, thedormant period is necessary for the grapevines to grow and produce the shoots which
wi 11 bear the year's crop.
The grape vines in Thailand, however, arenot dormant. After harvesting grapes andpruning vines, the vines put up the new shoots.
The average grape growing season is 4 months.
There are three seasons, winter (Novem ber toFebruary), summer (March to June) and rainy(July to October) seasons in Thailand. The
air temperature averages 20'e in the daytime
and JO'e at night in winter, and 30'e in thedaytime and 20'e at night in summer. The
temperatures are quite high for both tablegrapes and wine grapes. Although the climateis hot, the sugar contents of Thailand's grapes
are relatively low, 16 to 18 degree Brix due
to some uncertain reasons. The grape vines
may be infected by some viruses, so there is aneed to check for and control the viruses.
Organic acids especially malic acid is poor in
grape juices because they are lost by respiration. Rainfall is not too heavy, between 800
and 1,000 mm. However, this is fairly heavy,
when compared to that in the good climatic
areas for wine-grape production in the world.

The rainfall pattern in Thailand is roughly
equivalent to that in Hokkaido and Tohoku
districts in Japan. However, most of the rainfall
is concentrated during the rainy season. The
quality of the grapes harvested at the 2nd
growing season (October to January or February)is better than that at the 1st growing season(March to June or July) because the harvest timein the 1st growing season is in the rainy season.
Vineyards visited

Most of the vineyards in central Thailand
are located within 2 hours by a car from
Bangkok. I visited the vineyard of Kasetsart University and the vineyard in the low, bog land
both in the ·central Thailand. It takes about
2 hours by a car from Bangkok to the vineyards.
The experimental vineyard is located in
Kampangsan campus in Nakorn Pathom Province, which is 90 minutes by a car fromBangkok. There were several table grape varieties including a few Japanese grapes.
The vineyard in the low land was locatedin Damnern Saduak district, Ratchaburi Province,
and was surrounded by a lot of cannels. It isvery close to the famous floating market. Tablegrapes look as if they are growing in water.
There are several vineyards near Chiang Mai
in the mountains, in northern part of Thai·land. I visited two vineyards there. One is anexperimental vineyard at Hang Chat Horticultural Station in Lampang Province. There,Seagram (USA company) grows 16 grape va-* This report has already been sent to the National Resarch Council of Thailand and Japan
Society for the Promotion of Science in April, 1988.

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YOKOTSUKA

rieties and a French company grows 4 winegrapes and 7 table grapes. Another vineyard
is in Doi. (mountains) Inthanont, Chiang Mai,
where minority races live. They grow a poppy. However, the Thai government plans thegrowing of various crops, flowers and fruits
including grapes to replace the poppy. Thisis called Royal Project. In order to keep grape
berries well away from the wet soil andpathogens below, they use overhead trel·
lis or arbor. The berries are covered withpaper bags to prevent bird damage like thosein Japan.
Wineries visited

There are 3 wineries. One is in Samut Sakorm
Province arid is the biggest winery producing only wine cooler (SPY brand) in Thailand.
Another is in Patoom Thani Province and also produces wine cooler (Seagram brand). The
last one is in Nakorn Chaisri district, Nakorn
Pathom Province, the oldest winery in Thailand, producing table wines and also cooler(Cooler Club brand). Thailand also has one
brandy factory. It is in Suan Sampan district, Nakorn Pathom Province. The central
plain of Thailand is the most important areas
where grapes. grow. The table grapes areplanted and sold on the market. The most common varieties are White Malaga for whitevariety and Cardinal for red variety.
I visited three University wineries, pilot
scale winery at Department of Biotechnology,Faculty of Agroindustry, wine-making laboratory at Institute of Food Research and Product Development, Kasetsart University, andExperimental Winery at Chiang Mai University. At the Institute winery, several wines
were being made trom the grapes which werecultivated on Kampangsan Campus. At thewinery at Chiang Mai University, wines fromfruits other than grapes are mainly made_ They
are fermented and stored in 10 to 30 liters ofglass or plastic bottles. However, grape andfruit wines were made in a pilot scale (200 to300 liters) as the winery of the Department ofBiotechnology. The wines tested were a little
bit sweet and poor in acidity and astringency,

but clean and smooth.
Comments and suggestions to ..JSPS andNRCT
It is certainly a useful mutual beneficial
program I have seen and learned much about
the wine research work, wine industry, tropical viticultural practice in Thailand which I
have never known before from any book orjournal. Thailand is, unexpectedly, a country
with a great potential for growing good table and wine grapes.
In order to produce high quality of wines,
we need to have a good knowledge of grapes
along with that of wines. The Thai and Japanese scientists who know about both winesand grapes or their viticulturists (or enologists) who know about wines (or viticulture)should do joint research and discuss together.
In this program, researches on growing wine
grapes under such climatic conditions as highhumidity and high temperature which prevails
in Thailand and Japan and different fromthe western countries which produce high quality of wines should be carried out as a joint
project between the two countries. We should
also study flavors, acidity and astrigency ofgrapes and wines. These flavors are often
poor in grapes grown under tropical climaticconditions. We should also study the differ·ences in fondness or taste between grapes pro·
duced in Southeast countries including Japanand those of the western Europe countries.
Furthermore, we should study the selectionof wine grape varieties suitable to the climatic conditions in Thailand and Japan using
the same grape varieties. It will be fruitfulfor the two countries to initiate studies on therelationship between grape or wine quality
and the viticultural conditions such as theclimate, soil and fertilizer.
As to wine-making, we should study again
and analyze four fundamental flavors of wines
such as acidity, sweetness and astrigency,
basic techniques including how to use sulfur dioxide, how to prevent oxidation, how to use
bentonite, how to clarify, how to check wine
quality and importance of pH and scientific-Grape and Wine Industris in Thailand
control of fer mentation and aging as joint
researches among Southeast countries. We
should establish the academic researches andpractical techniques in the grapes and wines
for ourselves, name] y specific to Southeastcountries.

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