Tropical winery contends with fungi, religious riots

Tropical winery contends with fungi, religious riots

By Slobodan Lekic

BALI (AP): The only winery in the world's largest Muslim nation is nearly impossible to find. It stands behind an unmarked gate on a dusty village lane where motorscooters, chickens and water buffalo jostle for space.

"For understandable reasons, we try to be very discreet," says Vincent Desplat, chief winemaker at Hatten Wines on the island of Bali, Indonesia's premier tourist destination.

But making wine in a predominantly teetotalling society riven by religious and political strife is not what makes Hatten unique.

The most curious aspect of this pioneer tropical winery is a year-round grape harvest, which has enabled Desplat, a French winemaker recruited to develop the venture, to cork his 68th vintage in just under six years.

He achieved this feat despite adverse conditions unheard of in most wine-producing regions of the world - equatorial heat, monsoons, fast-growing fungi and voracious root-munching termites. Indonesia's persistent political and economic turmoil add to the uncertainty.

"It's more like a brewery than a winery," jokes Desplat. "We make a batch a month and call it a vintage. That's why we don't label them by years."

Rai Budarsa, the winery's manager, says sales slumped recently as foreign tourists - Hatten's main customers - stayed away following the bloody crisis in East Timor, and a wave of religious rioting elsewhere in Indonesia.

In January, Muslim mobs stormed and burned Christian churches on the adjacent island of Lombok, only 40 kilometers (25 miles) away, sparking fears that sectarian violence could spread to mainly Hindu Bali.

Hoteliers confirmed that bookings from Western Europe, Australia and Japan, which generate the vast majority of visitors, had dipped by 30 percent.

"It is hard to convince foreigners who watch riots on TV that Bali itself is perfectly safe," says Rizal Rumko Kasim, sales manager at the Grand Hyatt.

In order to survive, the island's tourist industry began trying to attract guests from nations where the fear of disturbances is not so pronounced, such as Yugoslavia and Russia. Gennady Kulikov, a Moscow businessman, says he and his wife had no worries about security.

"We knew about the unrest elsewhere in Indonesia, but our travel agent said Bali was safe," Kulikov says. "I'm glad we came because there are no crowds here."

The influx of "nontraditional" visitors may have cushioned the financial blow of the crisis, but many businesses are still struggling.

"This religious violence is a big problem for everybody," Budarsa says. "Eighty percent of Bali depends on tourism."

Still, Budarsa was confident enough in the future to purchase the winery's first vineyard. It is located on the island's north coast, about 60 kilometers (38 miles) north of the town of Samur where Hatten is based.

Until now, the winery had to buy from farmers the only grape that succeeds locally - a non-vinifera table variety known as alphonse lavallee.

That accounted for the short shelf-life of its flagship rose that must be consumed within three months before it starts turning sour - and a disturbing shade of orange.

He stresses that the rose and its even more quaffable sparkling version are still in the very early stages of development.

Just a couple of years ago, grapes were crushed by foot and pressed in a small wooden winepress. Modern equipment now has replaced such techniques.

Desplat is currently combing the Internet for information on vinifera grapes grown in other topical countries because his experiments to date with traditional varietals such as chardonnay and sauvignon blanc have not succeeded. He got prolific vine growth, but no grapes.

Since exports or sales to other parts of Indonesia are difficult because of the wine's brief lifespan, it is primarily marketed to tourist resorts in Bali. Recently, Indonesia's Garuda airline also began serving the tipple.

"Our aim is to provide a substitute for imported wines, which are very expensive in Indonesia," explains Budarsa.

For example, a bottle of Hatten retails for about Rp 50,000 (about US$7). A really cheap imported wine (French, Chilean or Australian) goes for about Rp 120,000. The wholesale price of a bottle of Hatten is Rp 25,000.

In addition, Budarsa says, "Foreign tourists find the wine attractive since it's a local product."

Visitors to Bali who have sampled Hatten tend to agree. "It's a decent rose wine," says Jean Cattet, a French engineer vacationing in the posh resort of Nusa Dua. "It reminds me of the light rose from the south of France, from Saint Tropez."

The phone number for the Hatten Winery is (361) 286298; e-mail hatten@dps.centrin.net.id. The official Indonesian tourism websites are: www.indonesiatourism.go.id and www.indonesia- tourism.com. Bali tourism sites are: www.bali-online.com and www.balinesia.com.