Producing a local wine for Bali tourists

Here on Bali's arid north coast, far from its terraced rice paddies and nowhere near its bustling beaches, Thomas Hadi Wibowo tends to a small vineyard - one of the closest in the world to the equator - growing grapes for Hatten Wines.

"The dry soil is good for the grapes; it gives them the right sweetness," said Wibowo, 36, a former apple grower from Java, as he wandered beneath the shade of the vineyard's trellises, waving a bamboo stick to frighten birds away.

Defying the popular notion that producing quality wine in the tropics is near impossible and probably not worth the headache, especially given the added complications of global warming, Hatten has managed to establish a small but successful wine trade here, even garnering some international recognition.

In the beginning, the company, established in 1994, had not only the tropical climate to contend with, but also government restrictions. Indonesia, which is overwhelmingly Muslim, maintains strict constraints on the production and importation of alcoholic beverages.

On top of a 170 percent tariff on imported spirits and wine, there is the 10 percent value-added tax at each point of sale, a luxury sales tax, an excise tax calculated by the alcohol content and regional government levies.

In addition, since 1990 the government has banned the establishment of any new alcohol-producing enterprises.

A Balinese wine was originally the dream of a few Australian entrepreneurs, who saw a market among Bali's tourists for a local product and were looking for a way to circumvent Indonesia's steep import duties.

Working with Ida Bagus Rai Budarsa, the son of a respected village chief in southern Bali, the Australians recruited a French winemaker, Vincent Desplat, and began searching for a spot suitable for growing grapes for wine.

It seemed a reasonable enough proposition. Budarsa already had a successful rice wine factory, which meant he had an alcohol license that predated the 1990 government ban, and the Balinese have been growing table grapes since at least the 1950s.

The climate, however, proved too hot and moist for most traditional wine-making grapes, such as pinot and chardonnay. After several failed attempts, coupled with the frustration of navigating Indonesian bureaucracy, the Australians dropped out - leaving Desplat and Budarsa to go it alone.

The two eventually settled the vineyard in northern Bali, which is shielded from excessive rain by the island's central volcanoes.

Desplat eventually gave up on "old world" wine grapes and instead opted for a mysterious local grape known as Probollingo Biru, which is thought to have been possibly brought to Indonesia by the Dutch, the French grape Alphonse-Lavalée and Belgia, a muscat grape.

All three varieties are table grapes, normally grown for eating, not making wine. But wine enthusiasts credit Budarsa's enthusiasm and tremendous investment in top-of-the-line wine-producing equipment and in recruiting experienced winemakers with making the winery successful.

"Anybody would need a lot of magic to work with these kinds of grapes," said Christian Vanneque, who owns Sip, a wine bar and restaurant in Bali, and who said he was once the youngest head sommelier in France. "But Hatten has managed to produce some very nice wines."

The rosé, the company's flagship wine and Indonesia's first, is meant to complement the country's spicy food and is normally served chilled. It is made from the Alphonse-Lavalée grape and was a finalist at the Portugal Winemaster's Challenge in 2003.

Hatten's Alexandria, a white dessert wine, won third place at the 2003 International Wine and Spirits Competition in London.

The grapes themselves are grown atop woven trellises, shading them, and the workers, from the intense sun. The vines have no dormancy period, which means the grapes ripen and can be picked virtually all year round. In the rest of the world, the grapes are only harvested once a year - one of the few advantages of growing grapes in the tropics.

"The old concept is that hot climates are not favorable for wine, so when you hear that wine is being produced in Bali, it comes as a shock," said Vanneque. "Hot climates usually result in high alcohol contents; you find this in many Australian wines. But you don't find that here. Hatten is producing some really well-balanced wine."

In fact, making wine in the tropics is a growing business.

Led by India, which in 2008 recorded 40 wineries, the tropical wine industry is benefiting from emerging classes of wealthier, local connoisseurs.

In Jakarta, several wine bars have opened in recent years with extensive lists. This year, Thailand opened its eighth winery and established the Thai Winemakers Association. Wineries can also be found now in Vietnam and Myanmar.

Kenya, with two wineries, probably holds the record for the closest vineyard to the equator.

Don Buchanan, who replaced Desplat as Hatten's winemaker last year, said the tropical wine industry had grown so much it might be time to consider a third categorization for wine.

Traditionally wine is split between the "old world" - Europe - and the "new world" - California, South Africa, Australia and South America.

"With the way things are going, I think a good argument can be made for a third category called 'tropical world,"' he said.

However, Buchanan said Hatten didn't have grand ambitions to export its wines all over the world.

"We are a boutique winery, and we will always be a boutique winery," he said. "We aren't thinking of expanding or exporting much outside of the domestic market. We simply want to offer tourists and the people that live here a quality local option."