All products featured on Vogue are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
With wine crafted everywhere from England to China, new wineries and regions are redefining what we think of as traditional wine country. One of the latest contenders? Thailand’s tropical wine region of Khao Yai, which sits just a two-and-a-half-hour drive north of bustling Bangkok (a high-speed rail slated for 2026 will make the trip even shorter). Wealthy Bangkokers consider this their weekend country getaway, since it’s home to Thailand’s first national park, the UNESCO-listed Khao Yai National Park, as well as bucolic fields, farms, and wineries that are championing the notion of “tropical wine.”
“As a Burmese chef who likes to use as many local ingredients and produce as possible, I was pairing my dishes with Thai spirits before I discovered GranMonte [in Khao Yai],” says Bangkok-based chef GooGoo (Phyu-Cyn), of modern Burmese private dining space Home Home in Bangkok, who pairs her salads with the family-run winery’s syrah-based Sakuna rosé. “Thai wineries have been working so hard to showcase their wines, collaborating with local and international fine dining chefs who are pairing them with modern Thai dishes—I’m very excited to see the direction local wines are heading.”
At chef Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn’s Nusara in Bangkok, ranked third on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants list, you can sip GranMonte’s sparkling rosé, crafted similar to champagne in the traditional method, in the Michelin-starred chef’s design-savvy dining rooms that frame expansive views of royal temple Wat Pho.
In Bangkok’s Chinatown, Chef Pichaya “Pam” Soontornyanakij partnered with family-owned boutique Issara Winery for bottles of unfiltered chenin blanc from some of the estate’s oldest vines. Produced exclusively (and aged separately for 10 months) for her Michelin-starred, Thai-Chinese fine dining restaurant Potong, which took its name from her family’s four-generation Chinese herbal medicine pharmacy previously housed here, the Thai white was crafted to pair with chef Pam’s five-element cuisine philosophy. “Khao Yai, as a region, has evolved rapidly throughout the past couple of years, and I think as more hotels open with high-end restaurants, Thai wineries could be the driving force behind the region’s growth,” she adds. “More talented winemakers are studying viticulture abroad and coming home to work in our wineries—this new era of talent is proving our country could stand on the world stage when it comes to wine.”
From internationally acclaimed art at cutting-edge contemporary exhibitions to design-forward hotels and glamping in the vines, here’s where to eat, sleep, and visit on a trip through Khao Yai’s ever-expanding wine country.
Where to Stay
At the Bill Bensley-designed InterContinental Khao Yai, upcycled 19th-century Thai train carriages open up to elaborately themed luxury suites, dining, and bar concepts inspired by the region’s former role as a rail gateway to northeast Thailand. The fine dining French train car Poirot, named after the Agatha Christie novel, hosts murder mystery dinner parties in a space inspired by the golden age of first-class rail travel; jazz bar speakeasy Papillon feels like a scene from The Great Gatsby; and a British-inspired Tea Carriage brings the best of Thailand’s booming craft coffee scene to this rural stretch of the country.
At Marasca Khao Yai, glamp under canvas near the vines in the middle of the mountainous UNESCO site that’s one of the top in Thailand for stargazing. If tents aren’t your thing, the 18-unit boutique property also offers glamper suites modeled after African safaris (complete with a wooden barrel hot tub and firepit) and glass-encased pool villas.
Hillside Roukh Kiri Khao Yai features 12 whitewashed, European farmhouse-inspired villas swathed in bohemian bamboo and rattan that embrace the surrounding countryside through outdoor soaking tubs and cabana-clad pools. Muthi Maya’s rustic-chic villas, meanwhile, are designed to blend into Khao Yai’s lush forest landscape with rooms opening up to minimalist patios with a private pool and sala (pavilion).
Where to Eat
.jpg)
Chefs in Bangkok aren’t only looking to the region’s wine for inspiration, they’re also venturing out for the farm-fresh produce and forest-to-table concepts, which continue growing as more travelers make the trek to Khao Yai. Meet the farmers and makers themselves at The Birder’s Lodge or the Muaklek Market Grounds, both favorites of Indian chef Gaggan Anand, owner of the eponymous, 22-course theatrical tasting menu restaurant in Bangkok.
Not far from Khao Yai National Park, Yellow Submarine Coffee Tank is one of the few examples of brutalist architecture in the area that has a lightness exuding an almost Japanese-like zen. Chinese black-ink walls and glossy, reflective tiles encase the cafe and al fresco coffee counter, where you can snack on sweets like burnt pumpkin with coconut milk-drizzled pumpkin ice cream and black cacao banana bread.
Open-air Krua Kampan (named after the centerpiece kampan, or sailing ship, hailing from historic Siamese capital Ayutthaya) is a local favorite near the national park for traditional Thai dishes like betel leaf-wrapped minced pork spare ribs. At Krou Nam Tok, thatched-roof terraces are perched on the edge of a waterfall, and no-frills dishes like Thai crab curry (poo pad pong karee) and spicy Thai shrimp salad (pla goong) are served alongside wines from local PB Valley and GranMonte.
What to Do
Khao Yai earned its name, which means “big mountain” in Thai, from the towering, 4,400-foot-tall peak in the namesake national park, one of the few monsoon forests still standing in Southeast Asia. Sprawling across four provinces up to the Cambodian border, Khao Yai National Park’s dry evergreen and bamboo forest is punctuated with trekking trails (some requiring an overnight stay), rivers designed for whitewater rafting, and tiered waterfalls flowing into streams cradled by volcanic rock (Leonardo DiCaprio jumped from the Haew Suwat waterfall here in blockbuster hit The Beach).
While daytime is best for spotting Asian elephants, gibbons, wild deer, and birds (the park is home to more than 282 species), open meadows and clear, dark skies make the park a favorite for stargazing and night safaris, where you can join park rangers in observing nocturnal residents like wild elephants, Makayan porcupine, and nightjars.
In the foothills of Khao Yai National Park, GranMonte Estate in Asoke Valley—where second-generation Nikki Lohitnavy, who earned an oenology degree from the University of Adelaide, has become the country’s first female winemaker—also takes its name from the mighty mountain. The former cornfield and cashew plantation sits in the perfect microclimate to grow varietals like syrah and viognier and is among the pioneers of New Latitude Wines—grapes grown outside traditional latitudes 30 to 50 in both hemispheres.
After touring the vines via wine tram (you’ll hear all about the nearby elephants who love nibbling on the estate’s grapes), take a seat in the tasting room and sample a selection of new releases like the country’s only verdelho, a Portuguese varietal expressing hints of gooseberry and ripe mango, or a syrah-cabernet sauvignon blend, a robust rouge with layers of red berries that’s rounded and balanced thanks to time aging in new French and American oak.
Considered the birthplace of Thai wine, PB Valley Estate claims the largest vineyard in the region, blanketing nearly a thousand acres of sloping, flower-filled fields and verdant valley. Harvest of the award-winning winery’s main grapes (shiraz, tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon, chenin blanc) takes place around the same time as South Africa and Australia, from late January until mid-March, but tours (in English) run year-round and include a taste of a trio of wines, from newer vintages to aged reserve shiraz.
One of the newest attractions extending from Bangkok to the Khao Yai region is Art Forest, a public project intended to propel Thailand’s contemporary art scene into the center of the Southeast Asia spotlight. Sculptural works and site-specific installations feature major international and Thai artists (including Louise Bourgeois’s bronze stainless steel spider Maman), all revolving around the same theme: healing nature.