Tropical Viticulture at Skugga Estate: Growing Wine Grapes in Mae On, Chiang Mai
Skugga Estate is developing one of the most technically ambitious wine programmes in Southeast Asia. The vineyard, planted in 2025 in the Mae On district of Chiang Mai at approximately 410 metres above sea level, sits outside every conventional assumption about where premium wine grapes can grow.
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Mae On has no cold winter, no natural dormancy period, and no temperate growing season. What it has is elevation, a pronounced dry season cool snap, volcanic and granitic soils with exceptional organic matter, and a viticulture team with deep roots in New Zealand winemaking. The combination of those factors, managed through precision farming techniques developed specifically for tropical growing conditions, is what makes the estate's wine programme viable.
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The vines are young. The first estate-grown vintages are still some years away. In the meantime, Skugga Estate offers a curated wine selection alongside its fine dining and tasting experiences, chosen to reflect the style and balance the team is working toward.
What follows is the estate's complete account of how tropical viticulture works at Mae On: the climate, the soils, the varieties, the rootstock, the farming techniques, and the science behind each decision.
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The Pokdum Grape: Thailand's Native Wine Variety
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The Soils of Mae On: Decoding Thai Terroir
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How Tropical Viticulture Rewrites the Farming Playbook
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How Precision Irrigation Drives Tropical Viticulture at Skugga Estate
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THE SERIES
The foundational piece. Mae On's 410-metre elevation, monsoon cycle, and December cold snap explained, and how those three factors combine to make quality wine grape production possible in a tropical highland environment.
The Pokdum Grape: Thailand's Native Wine Variety
Pokdum is a spontaneous genetic mutation of the Black Queen grape, carrying DNA from three vine species. It is the variety that made Thai wine commercially viable and the foundation of the estate's red wine programme.
The Soils of Mae On: Decoding Thai Terroir
Skugga Estate's comprehensive soil analysis revealed loamy clay, a highly favourable Cation Exchange Capacity, and organic matter of 2% to 4%, exceptional by Thai agricultural standards. What those numbers mean for the wine.
Cultivating Shiraz in the Tropical Highlands of Mae On
hy the estate uses the Shiraz designation rather than Syrah, how the Australian model of warm-climate viticulture informs the growing approach, and what Mae On Shiraz is expected to taste like.
How Tropical Viticulture Rewrites the Farming Playbook
A direct comparison between tropical and traditional viticulture: the absence of dormancy, the double pruning system, trellis architecture in high-radiation conditions, year-round soil management, and what sequential harvesting delivers at the end of the dry season.
How Precision Irrigation Drives Tropical Viticulture at Skugga Estate
Water as a precision instrument rather than a resource. How the estate uses irrigation withdrawal to induce pseudo-dormancy, nocturnal drip systems to prevent heat stress during 35°C dry season peaks, and deep root training to build vine resilience.
How the IAC 572 Rootstock Powers Skugga Estate
The Brazilian-developed rootstock that makes tropical viticulture possible. IAC 572's nematode resistance, acid soil adaptation, heat tolerance, and acidity-inducing properties explained, and why European rootstocks cannot perform the same function in Mae On's soils.
Why Colombard Is the White Grape Built for Tropical Thailand
The biochemical challenge of making white wine in a tropical climate, why malic acid loss produces flat, unstructured wine, and how Colombard's genetic heritage from Chenin Blanc gives it the acid retention that other white varieties lose under heat stress.
Tropical Viticulture at Skugga Estate: Growing Wine Grapes in Mae On, Chiang Mai
The estate is open for wine tasting and fine dining from Tuesday to Sunday. The vineyard is located in Mae On, approximately 40 minutes east of Chiang Mai Old City.
To book a table or tasting experience, contact the team at vineyard@skuggalife.com or call +66 81 146 2652. Follow the estate on Line at @skuggaestate.
GPS coordinates: 18.7657173, 99.239549.