ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
April 18, 2016
Pioneering winemaker finds early success in Myanmar hills
BURMESE BEVERAGES. A worker harvests
grapes at Aythaya wine estate in Aythaya, near
Taunggyi, the capital of northeastern Shan state,
Myanmar. Myanmar’s first-ever winery is a pioneering
effort by German entrepreneur Bert Morsbach, who
overcame both political minefields and viticulturally
virgin terrain to find himself catering to a growing
middle class and booming tourism, which together
create more demand than he can currently satisfy.
(AP Photo/Esther Htusan)
By Denis D. Gray
The Associated Press
A
YTHAYA, Myanmar — When a
democratically elected Myanmar
president took office after decades
of military rule, some toasted the historic
moment with a beverage decidedly not
paired with the tropical, Southeast Asian
nation: surprisingly high-quality, locally
produced wine.
They poured themselves an Aythaya
Sauvignon blanc (“internationally compe-
titive,” said one wine critic), a Shiraz-
based red (”marvellous improvement over
initial vintages”), or a refreshing sparkling
rosé.
These all stem from Myanmar’s first
winery, a pioneering effort by German
entrepreneur Bert Morsbach, who
overcame both political minefields and
viticulturally virgin terrain to find himself
catering to a growing middle class and
booming tourism, which together create
more demand than he can currently
satisfy. He doesn’t even have enough left
over for export.
Morsbach’s Aythaya estate could be
mistaken for a corner of Provence or
California’s wine country, in a verdant
valley tucked into the Shan Hills of
northeastern Myanmar, and at 4,260 feet
probably the highest vineyard in Asia.
Visitors, including a number of young
Burmese, sample its wines at his
restaurant with panoramic sunset views
over the gently undulating vineyard.
The harvests haven’t come easily. A
genial
one-time
mining
engineer,
Morsbach was among just a handful of
individual foreign businessmen in the
DAM DEVELOPMENT. A dolphin emerges on the Mekong river
at Kampi village in the northeastern province of Kratie, Cambodia, in this
March 17, 2009 file photo. A new study predicts that if 11 proposed dams
are built on the Mekong River, the famed Irrawaddy dolphin would likely
disappear from the river. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith, File)
Vietnam warns of dire impact
from planned Mekong dams
By Stephen Wright
The Associated Press
R
esearch commissioned by Vietnam has warned of
devastating environmental and economic effects
for millions of people living along the Mekong
River if 11 proposed dams are built on its main stream.
The two-and-a-half-year study by Danish water expert
DHI was submitted recently by Vietnam to the Mekong
River Commission, a body comprising Thailand, Vietnam,
Cambodia, and Laos that was set up to mediate the
conflicting water priorities of Mekong countries.
The study predicts “high to very high adverse effects” on
fisheries and agriculture in Cambodia and Vietnam if all
11 dams are built, and even greater damage if the
Mekong’s tributaries also are dammed. The famed
Irrawaddy dolphin would likely disappear from the
Mekong, it says.
Unmitigated hydropower development will cause
“long-lasting damage to the floodplains and aquatic
environment, resulting in significant reduction in the
socio-economic status of millions of residents,” according
to the study.
Much of Southeast Asia is suffering a record drought
due to El Niño, and officials in Vietnam have said the
effects are exacerbated by existing Chinese dams on the
upper Mekong. The rice-bowl-sustaining river system
flows into Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and
Vietnam. The Mekong is also one of the world’s largest
inland fisheries, providing a livelihood to millions of
people. Dams diminish fishing grounds by creating
barriers to breeding-cycle migrations and creating river
conditions that destroy habitat and food sources.
The study said agricultural production in the lower
reaches of the Mekong Delta would drop steeply because
the dams would trap river sediments, resulting in large
reductions in the volume of nutrients flowing down-
stream. Less sediment downstream would also make the
delta more at risk of saltwater incursion that can render
land infertile.
It predicts annual fishery and farming losses of more
Continued on page 13
1990s operating in a largely isolated
country where a xenophobic military
regime made the rules. One minister, he
said, simply appropriated an earlier
venture. And Morsbach had no experience
in winemaking, never mind doing it under
tropical conditions.
“It was full of obstacles, adverse condi-
tions, but it was a chance to do something
new. That was the challenge and it had a
reasonable chance of success,” said the
78-year-old Morsbach, whose résumé
includes building factories in the United
States, advising the Laos government, and
introducing sailboarding to Asia.
In the first year of full production, 2004,
the estate managed just 20,000 bottles.
This has soared to as many as 200,000
bottles in recent years, and Morsbach said
he is about to open another plant with a
one-million-bottle capacity. He needs far
more grapes than those grown on contract
by 30 families and his current harvest
from the 20-acre Aythaya vineyard.
Wine consumption in Myanmar is min-
uscule, so, Morsbach exults, the potential
in the country of 52 million is immense.
“We are still working on our first glass,”
said Hans-Eduard Leiendecker, Ayu-
thaya’s head winemaker, referring to
Continued on page 13
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