Wine sisters - 23rd July 2020

The Lohitnavy sisters make award-winning wine.

This looks like Tuscany or the South of France, where a lot of wine is made. But this is actually in Thailand.

The sisters' parents started the Granmonte Vineyard. Now, Nikki is changing their wine to suit the climate. She studied winemaking in Australia. Winemakers now come to the sisters for help. They're worried about climate change. They want to understand how to make wine in warmer weather.

Nikki: “Tropical wine making is really up and coming. A lot of wine makers from around the world they want to know what we do here because the climate is changing so they have to adapt to warmer temperatures, higher rainfalls in their regions too."

It is not just the climate which is a problem for the sisters. There are strict rules on advertising in Thailand.

Mimi: “For example I can't show clearly a bottle of my wine, I can't post on social media what the wine tastes like, how or why it's good and also there's a restriction in the form of excise tax."

During lockdown, the Granmonte Vineyard has lost almost 1 million dollars. The sisters are worried that stricter rules will cause more problems.