Does anyone fancy the annual Monsoon Valley Harvest Festival?! We’ve enjoyed drinking Monsoon Valley award-winning wines both in Thailand and through Monsoon Valley Wine UK for many years. We have fond memories of our time grape grazing and stomping at their Harvest Festival in 2021.
We recently returned for lunch and a cycle around the vineyard as we were in the area! If you arrive outside the Monsoon Valley Harvest Festival times entry into Monsoon Valley costs 300 THB per person which can be exchanged for food, wine, or activities such as bike riding. [Updated Jan 2024]
New latitude wines in Thailand
Bike riding around the Vineyard
There are lots of ways you can explore the vineyard and learn about the operation here. We chose the bike ride because the timings worked better with our lunch. They offer a biking scavenger hunt. I would probably prefer the guided minibus in future. Cycling in Thailand is hot and those grapes are grown on the gentle slopes around here for a reason!
Harvest Festival
Check out their website for future dates: 17-25 February 2024
Back in 2021 when Monsoon Valley first invited us to the annual Harvest Festival, I could not believe my Little Wren luck. It was as if all the stars were aligning for a magic night out for a big celebration.
Not only were we there to join Monsoon Valley’s family and friends to celebrate the 14th Harvest Festival but it was Mr Wren’s big birthday. We were all set to party at the Hua Hin beach a mere 35 km away but this was too good to miss. Monsoon Valley conveniently offers transport from Hua Hin for the 50-minute ride.
We’ve had our fair share of vineyards under our belt over the years. Eight years living in Belgium gave us easy access to the Alsace, Champagne, Loire, Burgundy, Bordeaux, and the like. But we’d never had a vineyard experience like this.
Grape to Glass program
We joined the Grape to Glass activity with wine & tapas and were blessed with a balmy night under the stars and some wonderful company. For this, I mean others that would help my husband relive his 40-year-old fantasy to wizz down a bouncy castle like a 5-year-old! It’s a long story…
The combination of the amazing setting, warm welcoming staff, our delight to experience and learn new things about wines, great food and drink not to mention the balloon clowns, nor the aforementioned bouncy castle fun.
Vineyard Tour – stunning countryside
Our vineyard tour seemed to go straight to grape picking but you could tell from our drive around that this was an extensive vineyard with well-established vines. Arriving at dusk, we found a stunning location of 700 RAi (110 hectares) of vines nestled in a bowl by misty mountains.
Since its founding, the vineyard has grown to offer a wide range of wines such as Colombard and Chenin Blanc, Sangiovese, Rondo, and Shiraz. Later came Muscat, Dornfelder, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sauvignon Blanc.
‘Being close to the sea gives the Hua Hin vineyards an advantage as nights tend to be cooler with a fresh breeze coming from the hills, whilst the sandy and loamy soil is enriched with shells and fossils giving minerality and freshness to the wines. Giving wine lovers a choice of wines crafted in various areas that differ in character and style.’
Grape Picking – at one with nature
In all our years of wine-tasting at vineyards, this is the first time we have been invited to get so hands-on. Normally there are do not touch signs around. The Monsoon Valley’s open-air bus takes us to rows of picture-perfect shiraz grapes hanging temptingly ready for collection. We are handed a basket and a pair of secateurs.
How do we know which bunches are ready for collection we ask? The staff grin having tested the sugar levels to know that all bunches are just perfect for picking!
We are all immersed in our own world of viticulture as we snip away filling our baskets to the brim. Amongst the vines, we find a warbler’s nest with two eggs. It’s just such a perfect at one with nature activity.
You can absolutely see why many would have the dream to have their own vineyard. How lucky for Thailand that the owner had the foresight to search for perfect lands so that we could all have this experience.
Grape Stomping – squidgy fun
Next up another hard to believe this is Thailand moment. We find wine barrels full of grapes each with its own pair of flip-flops (sandals). We are invited to go barefoot grape stomping! The more you stomp the more grape juice is produced and collected via a hose to a silver bowl below. The flip-flops are to wear as you wash your feet afterward.
Wine Blending – artist at work
Back at the central Monsoon Valley wine-tasting area, we are invited to blend our own wines. This was the skilled bit. First, we needed to sample the Merlot, Shiraz, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Once we’d determined exactly which characteristics we liked we could blend our perfect wine.
You taste the individuals’ components but as soon as you started to combine them the taste of the blends seemed to change dramatically – lots more practice was needed. We decided we could spend hours on this but the band was playing and tapas awaited.
Wine & Tapas – paired to perfection
Depending on how seriously people took the blending exercise some had already imbibed a generous amount of wine by the time we’d even got to the eat, drink, and be merry part.
Here we found five separate food stations. Each wine had been perfectly paired with Tapas for us to try.
On arrival, we were presented with vouchers for five glasses of different Monsoon Valley wines. Did I mention what phenomenal value the Harvest Festival was?
Live music and fun activities for kids/ bouncy castle
It was such a perfect evening. Sitting out amongst the vines enjoying the wine and tapas. A band played easy-listening music. Guido Campigotto, the General Manager said a few words of welcome and this being Thailand offered some lucky draw prizes, wine of course!
The food and wines were delectable. Our favourites were the Sparking Brut Prestige and the sweet dessert Late Harvest Chenin Blanc which we headed to the store to buy on our departure.
This was a well-thought-out event for all ages. Everyone really appreciated the thought that had gone into providing fun for all the family – the balloon art was a big hit
Annual Harvest Festival 2024
Celebrate with fun once a year Monsoon Valley harvest activities. This year 17-25 February 2024
Harvest Activity (490 Baht) :
- Vineyard tour
- Watch skillful workers picking grapes before turning to delicious wine.
- Grape stomping
- Wine Blending
(For kids and non wine drinker they offer a art souvenir workshop)
Vineyard tour – watch Grape picking – Grape stomping – Wine blending
More information at the Monsoon Valley website
Thank you Monsoon Valley
In all our years of visiting vineyards around the world, we were never offered the opportunity to pick grapes, enjoy grape stomping, or learn the subtleties of wine blending. Never in a million years did we think we’d be doing this in Thailand either.
Thank you to Monsoon Valley for inviting us to join your Harvest Festival. It was a not-to-be-missed wonderful evening indulging in great food, great wines, and great company. Check out Monsoon Valley’s website for details of upcoming events.
For more travel updates, do follow along on @littlewanderingwren’s Instagram and subscribe to this blog to follow Little Wandering Wren’s birds-eye view of the world here.
Happy Wandering!
Disclosure: Little Wandering Wren attended the Harvest Festival as a guest of Monsoon Valley.
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12 comments
Looks like so much fun!
Hi Carol – it was! Definitely not something we ever imagined we be doing in Thailand! The Harvest Festival is wonderful.
What an absolutely divine time at the Harvest Festival ~ great photos ~ Xo
Living moment by moment,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Thanks Carol – we were so lucky with the weather it is supposed to be really stormy in Thailand this weekend and it was a perfect evening to do everything as you can see we were busy!
What a fun time, eat drink and merry! Have a happy day!
Oh thank you Eileen – it was such a fun eat, drink and be merry event for sure!
Lovely post and pictures.
It really does look a perfect at one with nature activity 🙂
All the best Jan
Oh, Jan that’s kind of you to say. We did have a fantastic time at this vineyard and the really lovely thing is that we bought some wine and so can still enjoy the memories of this trip for a while to come!
Completelly other climate as here in Germany.
Thx for visiting my blog
Best regards
Bernhard
We used to love visiting the vineyards in Germany in the Rhine, Alsace or Mosel. We agreed lots of differences with Thailand, not least to be grape stamping in early April! Cheers to you Bernhard and thank you for stopping by.
Wren, this looks like such fun. We have spent a lot of happy hours touring vineyards and wineries in California (duh!) and here in Oregon where we have really great soil and climate for grapes (just not as much of it as our Southern neighbor state). But I have never picked the grapes, or Stomped them (I don’t think I’m sorry about the latter actually) and certainly not made my own batch. But we sure have sampled and enjoyed the atmosphere. I was glad to see there was white wine, because that is my preference.
Oh yes it was a lot of fun, I loved picking the graoes. I was surprised at the variety of wine on offer red, white and sparkling! We loved visiting the vineyards in California when we visited too! Thanks for stopping by.
Wren x