It's a common enough story. A child becomes interested in wines through an early family association with a vineyard and from a young age decides to make winemaking a career. The child goes to college, graduates with honors, and starts making wine which is exported to a number of countries around the world.So far, so normal, except that the vineyard is in Thailand and the passionate graduate – 24-year-old Nikki Lohitnavy – is the first and only female winemaker in the history of that country’s developing wine industry.
Not that the history runs too deep. Around 14 years ago when Lohitnavy’s father, Visooth, first established a vineyard in the beautiful Asoke Valley around 160km from Bangkok, it was just the third vineyard in Thailand. Now there are around seven as the burgeoning industry educates the Asian palate, while at the same time coping with restrictive regulations and taxation rates.
Days spent helping her father establish the vineyard soon convinced the young schoolgirl that wine making was not only her passion but would be her profession.
Her school friends were perplexed when she told them she was going to do a degree in Oenology – “What is that?” they asked.
“There are very few Oenology course around the world,’’ Lohitnavy says. “Adelaide is right up there at the top and I chose it because it was technologically really advanced.”
When she arrived in 2005 she was the first – and so far the only – Thai student, although the course has attracted students from India and China.
“One important lesson I have learned when I was studying and working in Australia was that, in the ever-growing wine industry, the unbiased and earnest exchanging of knowledge is imperative,” she says.
Lohitnavy graduated with honors and along the way was awarded the Foster Wine Estates Prize for excellence in winemaking and the Wolf Blass Prize, which enabled her to spend some time as a vintage winemaker at the famous Wolf Blass winery. During the course she also worked as a cellar hand with another noted Australian winery – Brown Brothers.
After graduating in 2008 it was back to the family’s GranMonte Winery – which was launched in 2001 and where the family has 16 hectares of high-quality grapes under cultivation in the Asoke Valley. Using sustainable farming techniques and utilising the micro-climate that exists in the valley at about 350 metres above sea level, Lohitnavy, as the incredibly busy oenologist and director of the vineyard and winery operations, supervises the production of 80,000 bottles, which is soon to expand to 120,000 bottles.
The vineyard uses precision farming technology to optimise the growing conditions. The so-called “GranMonte Smart Vineyard” comprises and integrates various multi-functional and multi-dimensional sensors to assist the vintner to monitor the vineyard closely from the internet or mobile phone. The weather sensors monitor humidity, temperature, mass movement of the air, rain accumulation and sunlight energy in the vineyard while the soil sensors measure the humidity and temperature of soil around the vines area. Video image array and radio frequency identification microchips help Lohitnavy follow the activities in vineyard, even from a distant location.
The techniques have certainly worked. The winery produces a range of whites, reds, rose, sparkling wine and the wines have won a number of awards, including some at shows in the home of wine, France, along with Austria and London and several Asian cities.
Around 80 percent of the production is sold locally with the remained being exported to Germany, the US, Japan, the Maldives and Hong Kong. The local sales are particularly satisfying in light of the strict regulations which cover the sale of wine in Thailand.
Absolutely all advertising is banned and there is a 260 per cent tax on each bottle imposed by the government. However Lohitnavy says Asia in general and Thailand in particular are becoming more interested in wines, as evidenced by the wine bars and wine clubs being established in Bangkok.
Lohitnavy’s wines are not the only export from GranMonte Winery. Lohitnavy herself has had stints as a visiting winemaker at two different wineries in France and in South Africa and Portugal, as well as being the plenary speaker at an international tropical wine symposium in Brazil.
“One important lesson I have learned when I was studying and working in Australia was that, in the ever-growing wine industry, the unbiased and earnest exchanging of knowledge is imperative,” she says.
Like the fruits of her wines, the fruits of Lohitnavy’s Australian education are spreading around the globe. She might already have a place in history as the first Thai student to attend University of Adelaide Oenology course, but her subsequent successes are ensuring that she will be remembered for far more than that.
