This Tucked-Away Corner of Thailand Is One of Asia’s Most Exciting Wine Countries
While daytime is best for spotting Asian elephants, gibbons, wild deer, and birds (the park is home to more than 282 species), open meadows and clear, dark skies make the park a favorite for stargazing and night safaris, where you can join park rangers in observing nocturnal residents like wild elephants, Makayan porcupine, and nightjars.
In the foothills of Khao Yai National Park, GranMonte Estate in Asoke Valley—where second-generation Nikki Lohitnavy, who earned an oenology degree from the University of Adelaide, has become the country’s first female winemaker—also takes its name from the mighty mountain. The former cornfield and cashew plantation sits in the perfect microclimate to grow varietals like syrah and viognier and is among the pioneers of New Latitude Wines—grapes grown outside traditional latitudes 30 to 50 in both hemispheres.
After touring the vines via wine tram (you’ll hear all about the nearby elephants who love nibbling on the estate’s grapes), take a seat in the tasting room and sample a selection of new releases like the country’s only verdelho, a Portuguese varietal expressing hints of gooseberry and ripe mango, or a syrah-cabernet sauvignon blend, a robust rouge with layers of red berries that’s rounded and balanced thanks to time aging in new French and American oak.
Considered the birthplace of Thai wine, PB Valley Estate claims the largest vineyard in the region, blanketing nearly a thousand acres of sloping, flower-filled fields and verdant valley. Harvest of the award-winning winery’s main grapes (shiraz, tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon, chenin blanc) takes place around the same time as South Africa and Australia, from late January until mid-March, but tours (in English) run year-round and include a taste of a trio of wines, from newer vintages to aged reserve shiraz.
One of the newest attractions extending from Bangkok to the Khao Yai region is Art Forest, a public project intended to propel Thailand’s contemporary art scene into the center of the Southeast Asia spotlight. Sculptural works and site-specific installations feature major international and Thai artists (including Louise Bourgeois’s bronze stainless steel spider Maman), all revolving around the same theme: healing nature.
