The Inle Lake area of Myanmar was my favorite of all the places I visited during my month in the country. While there, you can take a boat out on the lake, bike around the lake, walk to the lake……ok, so it doesn’t take too long to realize there’s not much to do that doesn’t somehow involve the lake. Yes, you can go trekking in the surrounding mountains, but then you have to find a guide as it’s illegal without one. Plus there’s all the annoying walking…. Luckily, I met some people in Mandalay who had recently read an article about a vineyard and winery in the area.
A selection of wines from Inle Lake’s Red Mountain Estate
Located on a hillside overlooking the town of Nyaungshwe and the lake, the Red Mountain Estate is apparently the only vineyard in Myanmar. Employing a French winemaker, they churn out various types of wine that can only be sampled within Myanmar or perhaps in China. That may change with the easing of export restrictions, but for now, you have to come to Inle Lake to try the Red Mountain Estate Taunggyi Wines.
Some of the vineyards belonging to the Red Mountain Estate
The easiest way to get to the estate is to take a taxi, but I hate taxis and try to avoid them as much as possible. In fact, I hate them so much that we opted to rent bicycles instead. And I’m definitely not a fan of bikes, with their uncomfortable triangular seat made for…I have no idea who they’re made for. Have you ever seen anyone with a triangular ass? Me neither. The lack of innovation in the world of bicycles is shocking. Give me a two-by-four and some shards of broken glass and I’ll design a more comfortable seat.
Nevertheless, I still rank bikes above taxis, living animals (I wrote about being forced to ride a camel not too long ago) and my own two feet, so off we pedaled. The shores of Inle Lake are virtually flat before sloping up into the hills, yet the road engineers managed to find a way to ensure the road constantly changed elevation. I don’t even know how that was possible, but I guess you just can’t find competent slave labor these days.
The winery is located on a hill overlooking the town of Nyaungshwe and Inle Lake.
When we arrived at the turnoff leading to the winery, we realized we hadn’t quite thought through our idea of avoiding taxis, as the winery is located on a hill. One look at the road winding its way upward was enough to convince us to leave our bikes at the bottom and walk up. We passed several vineyards on the way and eventually reached a nice outdoor seating area in front of a large building that contained the winery.
The view of the Inle Lake valley from the outdoor seating area
We hung around for a bit before we realized that the place seemed completely deserted. We walked around the outside of the building and eventually surprised what was apparently the only person within a kilometer of the winery. She turned out to be a waitress among the several hundred other things she must have been responsible for as the estate’s only visible employee.
We never got why no one was around, but it didn’t really matter as she took our order and would have cooked our food as well, had we ordered anything beyond a plate of cheese. Naturally we all got a wine tasting sampler, which included five wines for a few dollars, making this, surprisingly, one of the best budget activities in the country.
We asked her if we could get a tour of the winery before trying the wine, so she led us to the building, opened the door and pointed inside, “Go! Look!” Then she disappeared to slice our cheese and get our wine. We walked around a lab, a big room with tanks, a wine cellar, a few other rooms and had no idea what any of it was for. We basically had the run of the place and I was tempted to mix up my own batch of wine, but decided against it in the end. The woman was very trusting though.
Big metal tanks. Thanks to our informative tour, I know that these function to do stuff.
By the time we finished our self-guided and entirely uninformative tour, our wine and cheese had arrived. We got two whites and three reds and they all had slight hints of grapes and……like I know what I’m talking about. The white wines tasted like white wine and the reds tasted like red. The cheese had a distinct cheese flavor and the water was cold.
As we were finishing up, a group of three western tourists showed up on their bikes, making this the single busiest month in the winery’s history. The new group were French and French-Canadian and since I was there with two girls from Montreal, I couldn’t tell you what was going on after that. They all spoke French (even the waitress spoke French and joined in) and I walked around and took pictures. Let’s hear it for my three years of French lessons!
The seating area. If you squint, you can make out the edge of Inle Lake in the distance.
When it came time to leave, the new group jumped on their bikes and sailed down the hill and off into the distance and we learned why no one leaves their bikes at the bottom, as we slowly walked to retrieve them. The ride back to our guesthouse in Nyaungshwe was even less enjoyable than the ride out, but despite that, I have to say the outing was successful.
The wine was good and very inexpensive, the weather was great, the view from the top of the hill of the valley and the lake in the distance was amazing and I even enjoyed everything about the bike ride apart from the seat and the actual pedaling.
If you’d like more information about the area, check out my guide to Inle Lake. For directions to the winery, head to the Red Mountain Estate website.
I’m not much of a wine drinker but I found this post very interesting.
I’m not a big wine drinker either, but this was just too unique an experience to pass up.
This is Burma we are talking about? Who would have thought they would be making wine. Red Mountain Estate is quite beautiful. All we can hope is that the country will open up for the world. Great post.
Yes, this is Burma. I know, I had no idea they produced wine either. Apparently, this is the only vineyard in the country so far; at least that’s what they claim.
How strange they would say that. There is a German owned vineyard further up the mountain on the way to Taunggyi.
This was 6 years ago and the country has opened up a lot. I’m sure there are quite a few vineyards there these days.
That is a great tale Daniel. I love where you say “The white wines tasted like white wine and the reds tasted like red. The cheese had a distinct cheese flavor” 🙂 just as well not to have too many surprises!
The pictures make it look like a wonderful spot. It is a shame the place does not get more tourists especially when you can be let loose without supervision in a vineyard!
It was a really wonderful spot and I now feel like I didn’t really take full advantage of having a whole winery at my disposal.
This is spectacular. I cannot believe there’s a winery in Burma. This sounds like a wonderful experience. I love how the waitress just told you to go explore the facilities. Ah, sounds like my kind of day. I have to go here when I’m in the area.
Yeah, I was surprised she just let us roam around freely, but she was there alone and I don’t think she really knew what else to say. I got the feeling we visited on a day off, but she assured us that wasn’t the case. Guided tour or no, the winery was one of the highlights of my whole trip to Myanmar.
Hi Daniel,
First tasted the Red Mountain Shiraz last year November. Now I would like to visit the estate.
Thanks for your trip account!
Did you try it in Myanmar or did you actually find it outside the country? When I was there, the woman told us the wines were only available in Myanmar and China, but we were all expecting that to change soon, so I’m curious if it has. The estate is definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area. It was one of the highlights of my trip.
I like how subtle you are at describing unfamiliar wine, but it seems like you had a lot of fun time in that Myanmar wine cellar. My wife and I would want a similar trip as well. We will need an expert on Wine Cellar Repair if there is a cellar worth checking out nearby.