10^th September 2013  Red Mountain Winery

A visit to Red Mountain Vineyard right on the edge of Lake Inle was most interesting, as we had enjoyed drinking their wines whilst on the cruise

A French Wine maker and Burmese (Shan) owners had developed this ultra modern winery since 2002 this is the staff that welcomed us to the wine tasting in their newly built restaurant and wine shop.  We did not stop for lunch, but it is a huge space, not sure they have enough staff at short notice to fill it however!

Great view across Lake Inle and the Shan mountains behind from the vineyard

State of the art machinery from Italy

With screw top bottling and fast labeling machines

All very impressive – with quality and inexpensive wines are being sold

“All of the 400,000 plants have been imported from France and Spain, and the variety chosen after experimentations.

It's a combination of different factors, the cool climate, the soils, the long experience of our French winemaker. The wines are made in the tradition of western wines with all new technologies and modern equipments." Their website tells us

The sauvignon blanc (our favourite) comes from Israel.

The last day, we found out that we had misread the departure times which kept changing for the Air Bagan short hop from LakeInle to Mandalay.  It’s such a tiny airport, we had not choice but to sit and while away our time (6 hours)  at this local restaurant just outside the airport where the taxis and mini buses wait.  At least we got to sample local food, quite acceptable mixed rice with chicken.

The landlady did not mind me taking her photo – generally Asian people hate having their photo taken – they think it takes away their soul!