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Redefining the Boundaries of Wine

New Latitude Winemaking at Monsoon Valley, Thailand

If you were asked to name the least likely place on earth to grow grapes, Thailand would probably be high on the list. Located between roughly 5° and 20° north of the equator, with most vineyards clustered around 13–15°N, it lies far outside what we have traditionally considered viable viticultural territory. Tropical, relentlessly hot and humid, with monsoon rains, blazing sun, unpredictable seasons and constant disease pressure, this requires viticulture played on expert mode.

And yet, Thailand is making wine. Not just novelty wine, but increasingly serious, drinkable and diverse wine that challenges our assumptions about where viticulture belongs.

My first encounter with Thai wine came almost by accident: a bottle from Monsoon Valley slipped into a Decanter ‘lucky dip’ box. Later, during a visit to Thailand, I tasted more of their range and was genuinely surprised by the quality, and I was intrigued to find out more. Initial curiosity quickly turned into fascination, how on earth do you grow grapes, let alone make good wine in a climate like theirs?

New Latitude Winemaking

The answer lies in what is now known as ‘New Latitude Winemaking’: wine production outside the traditional 30–50° latitude bands of the northern and southern hemispheres. These regions break almost every classical rule of viticulture and rely on intense human intervention, scientific adaptation and constant experimentation to succeed.

To understand this first-hand, I travelled to Monsoon Valley to meet their winemaker and viticulturist, Suppached Sasomsin. Suppached graduated in Biochemistry, followed by a master’s degree in Viticulture and Wine. He subsequently worked in different winemaking areas including New Zealand, France and Germany. His combination of passion, technical knowledge and practical ingenuity is central to the current project.

Monsoon Valley is on the Malay Peninsula, two hours south of Bangkok and 35 km from the seaside town of Hua Hin. The estate is unexpectedly grand: 110 hectares in total, with 48 hectares planted to vines.  I arrived in late November, expecting sunshine and lush tropical vineyards, but was struck instead by waterlogged soils, heavy humidity and low, rain-filled cloud. The monsoon had overstayed its welcome.

Suppached looked worried. He explained that the usual November pruning had to be delayed this year because it was simply too wet. Pruning now would not only be technically challenging but a disease risk.  However, if the pruning was delayed too long then harvest would be pushed forward to the rainy season. At this latitude, temperatures never fall below 0°C so vines never really shut down and experience winter dormancy. As a result, they simply keep growing, producing vast amounts of foliage. If left unchecked, it leads to poor fruit quality. The solution is extreme pruning. Vines here are pruned twice a year, heavily, once in April, when they are cut right back, and again in November.

Thai producers traditionally harvested twice a year, but here they have moved to a single higher quality harvest during the spring dry season. In Monsoon valley, this is usually mid-February to late March.

Viticulture without a rulebook

Waterlogged vineyards from relentless November rain

One of the most fascinating aspects of the visit was the nursery. Monsoon Valley is experimenting with new clones and crossings specifically adapted to tropical conditions. Some of the vines don’t even have names yet. This is long-term, highly complex work: crossing varieties, observing disease resistance, vigour, fruit quality and resilience to heat and drought. It is viticulture at its most experimental, driven by necessity rather than tradition.

Disease pressure is relentless, and there is no illusion about organic farming here: some judicious spraying is essential. That said, innovation is everywhere. One particularly striking technique involves crushing mussel shells into an ultra-fine powder and spraying it onto the vines. Under a microscope, the particles resemble millions of tiny daggers, physically deterring certain insects and pests. It was the first time I had seen this method used in a vineyard.We toured the estate by safari vehicle, rolling through vineyards framed by one of the most arresting backdrops imaginable: a vast Buddhist temple rising above the hills. It was a powerful reminder that this wine is grown in a completely different cultural and geographical context. Elevated vineyards benefit from a gentle breeze that moves up the slopes, moderating heat and reducing disease pressure. It is a small climatic advantage but, in this environment, every advantage counts.

Suppached Sasomsin demonstrating pruning methods at Monsoon Valley, Thailand

Training systems include the V-shape or Lyra system, which is a split-canopy trellising method used to manage vine vigour, improve fruit quality, and reduce disease pressure. This is particularly good in high growth or humid environments. By splitting the foliage, the divided canopy improves air circulation around the fruit. The system increases the vine’s productive surface area and photosynthetic capacity compared to traditional vertical systems. Soils are generally sandy loam.

In one plot, Sangiovese vines had recently been pulled up after dying during an exceptionally dry spell with plans to replant with Syrah, one of the estate’s key grapes. Syrah, Chenin Blanc and Colombard dominate here, alongside some intriguing plantings of Solaris and Muscaris

I concluded the visit by tasting the wines at Monsoon Valley’s restaurant, perched above the vineyards with sweeping views of the estate. Given the conditions, the heat, the rain, the pressure from every conceivable disease, the quality was remarkable. These are not wines pretending to be Bordeaux or the Rhône, they are wines that accept where they come from, work intelligently with it and are proud of the results.

New latitude wine making is not about romance or tradition. It is about control, science, adaptation and resilience. And in Thailand, against all the odds, it seems to be working.

A shorter version of this article appeared in the March edition of Decanter Magazine 2026.

Tasting Notes: Monsoon Valley

Syrah vines with a Buddhist temple in the mountains

Monsoon Valley Sparkling Extra Dry Rosé 2025
This was an immediately charming way to begin. Bright, refreshing raspberry flavours, underpinned by around 15g/L of residual sugar that softens the edges without tipping into sweetness. There’s a pleasing snap of acidity making it balanced and highly drinkable. Particularly notable is the fact that this was the assistant winemaker’s first wine, an impressive debut.

Monsoon Valley Solaris 2024
Solaris is a fascinating choice here. Bred for cold climates and prized in Scandinavia for its short growing season, developed at the Freiburg wine institute, Germany. It might seem an unlikely candidate for Thailand, yet its disease resistance and adaptability make it surprisingly well suited to tropical conditions. In the glass, it offers fresh gooseberry and citrus notes, with a clean, vibrant profile.

Monsoon Valley Chenin Blanc 2024
A wood-aged expression, spending seven months in barrel, this Chenin strikes an appealing balance between freshness and texture. Crisp acidity frames subtle citrus aromas, while the oak adds gentle breadth rather than dominance.

Monsoon Valley Signature Red 2024
A blend of Shiraz and Dornfelder, with the components vinified separately before blending. Thermovinification is sometimes used. This involves gently heating the grape must to around 60°C helping to extract colour, tannins and flavour compounds. This wine then spends 12 months in a mix of new and large-format oak casks. Suppached noted that it can be a challenging wine in the cellar, with a tendency toward reduction, but that effort is rewarded with depth and structure.

Monsoon Valley Cuvée de Siam Rouge 2021
Dominated by Shiraz (85%), Sangiovese once played a role in this blend but succumbed to drought and was replaced by other cultivars, a reminder that variety choice in Thailand is never static. The wine shows ripe plum, cherry and blackberry fruit, layered with gentle spice and rounded by ageing in French oak barrels.

Muscat of Hamburg (Pink-Skinned), Late Harvest 2025
A fittingly exuberant finale. Perfumed and intensely floral, this late harvest Muscat is fortified to 15% alcohol and carries around 120g/L of residual sugar. Lush and expressive rather than heavy, it celebrates aromatic intensity while retaining enough freshness to remain balanced.


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Marri Wood Park: Biodynamic wine grower in Margaret River

Tucked away in Yallingup, Western Australia, Marri Wood Park is a small family-owned vineyard known for its Demeter-certified biodynamic practices. Since 1992, this 16-acre estate, located along Caves Road near Smiths Beach, has cultivated vines with a reverence for nature’s rhythms.

The vineyard’s sustainable philosophy avoids chemicals, instead embracing celestial cycles to guide pruning, fertilising, and harvesting. Grazing animals enrich the soil, while natural biodiversity fosters a self-sustaining ecosystem. With no irrigation, the vines rely on the cooling breezes of the Southern Indian Ocean and the deep, resilient roots of their 28-year-old cabernet sauvignon, sauvignon blanc, chenin blanc, and semillon vines. The soils are a blend of sandy, gravelly loam over limestone bedrock retain water over the dry summer.

Hand-harvested grapes are meticulously sorted and fermented in a variety of vessels, including clay amphoras and French and Austrian oak barrels. This hands-on, minimalist approach captures the essence of Margaret River, producing wines of purity and depth.

Inspired by Rudolf Steiner, whose teachings revealed nature’s intelligence, and guided by Alex Podolinsky, the founder of Demeter Bio-Dynamics, Julian the owner of Marri Wood Park embraces a philosophy of ‘active perception’. He explains that through observing and engaging with the land, they have cultivated a profound affinity with their patch, a deep respect for its rhythms and ecosystem and how it works.

Visit the estate by appointment and Julian will walk you through the land and the vineyards explaining his unique approach as he goes then on returning the  barn sample the wines.

Unusually for the region they grow Chenin Blanc and the Marri Wood Park, Chenin Blanc museum release 2014 was superb!

Rich yellow in colour, with an intense nose of waxy lemon peel, preserved lemon, yellow apple, fresh green rosemary, thyme and dried herbs. There is also roasted macadamia, smoke, toast and honeycomb. Super complex.

Dry, very mouth-watering, with a lovely oily texture. Medium body, only 11.2%. More tart citrus, tinned peach, a subtle touch of vanilla, waxy and toasty, with a long taught finish.


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South Africa: Reyneke Wines, Stellenbosch.

Johan Reyneke

Mostly when I ask winemakers about what they are doing to be more sustainable and to reduce their environmental impact the answer is all about stewardship of the land; vineyard practice, avoidance of pesticides, and perhaps a bit of onsite recycling. All good stuff, but as the drive towards Net Zero Carbon builds obviously the wine industry also needs to step up and make a start down this road.

Challenging though it may be, without plotting a route and taking the first step, the target will never be reached.  Equally we consumers need vote with our wallets and make it clear we care, not just about how tasty the wine in our glass is, but also about the journey has taken to get there.

Happily, there are some great wineries out there, leading the way on sustainability and one of them is Reyneke Wines in Stellenbosch.

Since the early noughties Johan Reneke has been working towards achieving the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, social and economic.  As he eloquently argues, how can a wine be beautiful if there is ugliness, in the form of glaring social inequity, involved in its making? He also makes the point that only a financially healthy business is going to be able to achieve any sort of environmental and social goals.

Johan sees Biodynamic farming as part of a larger picture of regenerative farming. Agriculture is one of top five contributors to climate change but regenerative agriculture actually provides the opportunity to turn this around. It can actually sequester carbon back into the earth by improving soil health and increasing humus content. Another win is by moving away from monoculture biodiversity can also be improved.

Reyneke works with nature to maintain vine health without recourse to chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. This ‘land caring’ element of the approach uses for example dandelions and other cover crops to provide a preferential home for pests. It also involves ducks trotting around the vineyards hoovering up snails.

Land within the farm is also ‘spared’ so that there are pockets of wilderness left between the vineyards which are rich in flora and fauna.  The farm’s herd of cattle currently roaming in pasture below the winery, are let into the dormant vineyards over winter to fertilize them. In a lovely example of the vineyard’s circular like economy the winery produces feed for the cows in the form of the grape pressings which according to Yohan they love!

Looking back towards False Bay with the farm herd of cattle in the foreground.

Improved soil health and biodynamic farming has made the vines more resilient to pest, fungus and drought and so by extension perhaps some of the other effects of climate change?

As we visit the Reyneke wine farm is currently being extended into a neighbouring farm recently acquired.  Some of the vineyards are being kept and some replanted. One can see where strips running along the contours of the hillside are being set side for biodiversity corridors between the vines.  Old vines are piled up and will be turned into bio-charcoal that will be mixed in with the soil, locking in the carbon long term.

New vineyards in preparation. A pocket of Fynbos top left, horozontal lines on the hill side mark out future biodiversity corridors

When looking at the road to net zero carbon any organisation needs to look at its Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.  Scope 1 emissions are C02 emissions arising from operations directly controlled by the organisation. Scope 2 are emissions up stream caused indirectly by the organisation when it buys in goods and services from elsewhere, for instance electricity or bottles. Finally scope 3 emissions are those downstream arising from the activities of distributors and consumers transporting, consuming and disposing of goods.

At Reyneke the farm is now carbon negative but Johan continues to look at the winery operations. He is investigating renewable energy in the form of photo voltaic (PV) panels, possibly in combination with electric tractors which could double up by providing some energy storage too.  The Cape is lovely and sunny but electricity is currently rationed in ‘load shedding’ which adds another reason for moving off grid.

Reyneke is also trailing the use of Tetra Pak type packaging as an option, starting with their entry level organic wines in Scandinavian countries who seem more open to the idea.  Clearly there is a challenge here in shifting negative consumer perceptions of ‘bag in a box’ type wine.  Moving away from bottles would deliver valuable reductions in carbon footprint in terms of packaging and transport.

A non-interventionist approach follows through into the wine making. Instead of temperature controlled stainless steel and yeast inoculation at Reyneke wild fermentation in oak barrels is the order of the day. The wooden containers and smaller volumes successfully manages the temperature during fermentation in a passive way. The wild yeast and breathability of the oak also give a different character to the wines in particular the Sauvignon Blancs.

Johan’s story is so fascinating, and the challenges he and his team have taken on are so inspiring that this intro’ section could easily run on and on so let’s get to the wines, which do not disappoint!

Reyneke Sauvignon Blanc 2021

On the nose, hay, a touch of gooseberry, a whiff of custard. Good body with lovely balance and freshness. A nice supple mouth feel, white peach, exotic fruit pineapple, creamy gooseberry fool. Complex with good length a wine that evolves. Excellent. (Tasted at the farm and again back in London with consistent results)

Reyneke Reserve White 2020.

This is also 100% Sauvignon Blanc. The reserve is made from selected pockets of grapes within the vineyard which have their own character. It gets 24 hours on the skins and the new oak barriques.

More stone fruit on the nose also a bit of hay and a subtle touch of vanilla. Lovely textured mouth feel, more peach and bit of toast, rich but balanced, great length. Neither of these wines are your identikit new world SBs, much more interesting and complex.

Reyneke Chenin Blanc 2021

The vineyards here are part of the South African old vine project so more than 35 years old.

The nose is floral and nutty. In the mouth apricot, honey and a slightly salty finish. Vibrant.

Reyneke Syrah 2019

On the nose, sweet blackberry, dried herbs and crushed pepper. In the mouth dried black fruits, iodine, ripe tannins, full bodied but fresh.  Long. (Tasted at the farm and again back in London where the wine benefited with time in the glass.)

Reyneke Reserve Red. 2019

The wine is 100% Syrah and again from selected parcels of the vineyard.

On the nose, blueberry pie, ripe fruit, pie crust, vanilla, coffee grounds, fresh garigue herbs. Iodine? Ripe blue and blackberries, powdery tannins, a herbal liquor note, savoury notes of grilled meat, full body and fresh acidity. Complex and very long. So good now that it will be hard to keep ones hands off this to let it mature! (Tasted at the farm and again back in London where again the wine benefited with time in the glass.)

Cornerstone 2019

A blend of Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon in this vintage.

The wine is named after the Cornerstone project.  Johan sees the workers as the cornerstone of the business, farm workers generally receive low wages as there is high unemployment and viticulture is the least profitable part of the industry. Scheme aims to empower workers with housing and education using profits from the winery.

Classic cassis, black current leaf, black current jam and a touch of sawdust on the nose. Austere at first, black fruits, green pepper, coffee grounds, slightly drying grainy tannins. Tasted again in London it opens up and fruit fills out the palate with bit of air. Still fairly primal at this young stage but good potential.

There is a vibrancy and depth to these wines which is compelling and it’s a quality that the Wander Curtis team have noticed on multiple occasions in other Biodynamic wines by producers such as Felton Road and Chateau Pontet-Canet. On every level there is definitely something to Biodynamic wine making.