Pursat province's Krakor district, located on the southern shore of Tonle Sap lake, is known more for its prahok (fermented fish paste) factories than its wineries. But instead of fermenting fish, one Cambodian entrepreneur is using the local forest's wild grapes to make wine.
FROM THE VINE: Nou Virak and his employee, Chun Rotha, examine wild grapes near the winery.
''People thought I was going crazy because I was spending so much money buying grapes and making wine,'' said Nou Virak. ''Now they don't know what to say because they see me selling so much.''
Sweet and sour with a light tart kick and high acidity that gives it a slight vinegary aroma, the wine won't turn connoisseurs' heads anytime soon, but Nou Virak's three-person team managed to sell 20,000 bottles last year.
The wild grapes, known locally as tompeng baychhou prey, grow naturally around Pursat, but are seldom eaten due to their unappealing flavour and texture. Their most common use before Nou Virak decided to turn them into wine, he said, was as playthings for children.
''They're hard to eat because the seeds are big, the skin is thick and when you eat them they make your mouth itch.''
But 10 years ago, Nou Virak, a 41-year-old native of the southern province of Prey Veng, was working in Pursat on an NGO-sponsored agricultural development project, and decided wine-making could be a creative way to capitalise on the unused local resource.
Knowing little about viticulture, however, he invested his savings and spent most of the next decade teaching himself the craft. His only prior experience had been the basic theory he picked up while studying agriculture in Thailand.
DRIPPING JUICE: Freshly harvested grapes in the grinder. PHOTOS: BENNETT MURRAY
Nou Virak started the Wild Grapes Association in 2003, and it is based in a single shed surrounded by paddies just off Highway 5. It now sells wine certified organic by the Cambodian Organic Agriculture Association in three Phnom Penh shops, but it began, Nou Virak said, as a foolhardy dream that made him a laughing-stock among his neighbours.
But achieving his dream was not without its problems _ with no one brave enough to try his concoctions, he was forced to test all the wine by himself which caused him to be sick quite frequently.
As time went by, the project became all-consuming, said Nou Virak, adding that he chose to forgo a family life in favour of wine-making.
''The reason I don't want a wife right now is because if I had a wife, I'd waste all the money I need to make the wine. I'd have to take care of her and the kids.''
His obsession with making wine is particularly remarkable considering that he doesn't particularly enjoy drinking it.
''I'll taste it, but I don't like to drink very much,'' he said.
The manufacturing process is much the same as for wine everywhere. The juice is extracted from the grapes, and palm sugar and yeast added. After fermentation begins, the liquid is filtered and put into secondary fermentation vessels. Egg whites are used as a fining agent before bottling. The wine Nou Virak has sold in the past has been aged for a full year, but he plans to start selling wine aged for three years soon.
Although Nou Virak is considering the feasibility of cultivating grapes, he currently enlists local villagers to harvest grapes from the nearby forests at the edge of the Cardamom mountain range. He pays 500 riel (four baht) per kilogramme and uses about 72 tonnes to produce 20,000 bottles.
His neighbours have a new found respect for his winery, and have asked Nou Virak for samples, but he refuses, explaining that a single bottle carries a price tag of US$6 (190 baht) in Phnom Penh. He does, however, give free wine to women in the village after childbirth.
''When a woman gives birth, they drink it and they say it helps them,'' he said, adding that he could not personally vouch for the claims but did not doubt the word of his neighbours.
It is not just the wine that helps with women's health issues, said Nou Virak. He said that the vine roots were also in demand to treat urinary tract infections in women. This once created problems when the local medicine man, unaware that Nou Virak was using the grapes, dug up the roots. The issue was resolved after the medicine man agreed to stay away from Nou Virak's forest grape vines. And now Nou Virak is expanding his operations. Last year, after a meeting with the Cambodian Organic Agriculture Association in which he suggested it would be possible to make wine in other regions, the association put him in touch with farmers in Preah Vihear province.
He says the higher rainfall in the province makes for better grapes, and he now divides his time between his Pursat winery and Preah Vihear, where he hopes his first batch of wine will prove a success. He now hopes to export wine to China following a visit earlier this year for the China-Asean Expo in Nanning.
''They seem to like it a lot in China, and I really want to find somewhere to export to,'' he said, adding that he wants the wine's unique flavour to catch on internationally.
Courtesy of 'The Phnom Penh Post'.
FINELY FERMENTED: Ground grapes that have been sitting for about a month in a plastic barrel.