As with most other Asian countries, wine is not the first commodity that comes to mind when thinking about Vietnam. You rather think about rice or coffee. But Dalat, with its cool central highland climate and strong French heritage, is an anomaly, producing artichokes, asparagus, strawberries and most recently, wine.
Wine making
“I first came to Dalat five years ago to evaluate the potential to grow grapewine”, Daniel Carsol says. Daniel is 44 year-old French and he has been working in Vietnam for almost fifteen years. “I realised that the climate, sun exposure, temperature , humidity and soil were quite adequate. The average temperature is 17°C, and does not exceed 25°C in the hottest season. Early mornings, the city arises to mystic fog over the lake. Its temperate climate is ideal for agricultural production. Da Lat is also renowned for its orchids, roses, vegetables and fruits. There is a nascent wine-making and flower growing industry in the region. You just have to know which cepage will suit best these natural conditions. Last year, we srtarted to grow some cepage under 1,000sqm green house. Now that these plants are strong , we are now planting them in the outside. We hope to reap our first harvest soon”. Even though, he just started, he knows exactly his business : Daniel is an experienced French viticulturist whose grandparents and parents also devoted their lives to growing grapes.
He contacted Vietnamese big companies such as Vinataba to set up a Vietnamese-French joint venture. The Dalat Grapes joint venture has planted four French grape varieties – Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet, and Caladoc in Ta Nung commune, 30km from the town. In the cool weather, the plants grow sucking in nutrients from the fertile soil to acquire a unique taste. Daniel is the director of Da Lat Grapes. Back home he owns 150 ha of vineyard in Côtes du Rhône. The company is planning to blend the four varieties of grapes to make a special Ta Nung wine.
Da Lat is the capital of Lam Dong Province in Vietnam. The town is located 1500 m above sea level on the Langbiang Plateau in the southern parts of the Central Highlands. Blessed with a cool and breezy weather, it was discovered by the French : they made it a resort to escape the hot wetaher of Saigon. During the 1890s, explorers in the area (including the noted bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin , protégé of the renowned French chemist Louis Pasteur), which was then part of the French territory of Cochinchina, asked the territorial governor to create a resort center in the highlands. The governor agreed, and, in 1907, the first hotel was built. The French endowed the city with villas and boulevards, and its Swiss charms remain today. They also built boarding schools where children from the whole of Indochina were taught by French priests, nuns and expatriates. There were seminaries of Jesuit (such as Pius X Pontifical College) and other orders. The elite Vietnamese National Military Academy graduated its first class of future leaders in 1950. There was also an aviator school at Cam Ly airport.
According to a myth from the French colonial era, the name derives from the acronym of the Latin phrase 'Dat Aliis Laetitiam Aliis Temperiem' ("Giving Pleasure to Some, Freshness to Others"), which the French colonial government used in their official emblem of Da Lat. In reality the name derives from the language of the local ethnic group Lat and its original meaning is "Stream of the Lat". In Vietnam, Da Lat is a popular tourist destination - highly appreciated for its temperate climate, beautiful sights such as waterfalls and lakes and its abundance of flowers and vegetables. It is the location of the Novotel Da Lat (formerly Da Lat Hotel) and Sofitel Da Lat (formerly Da Lat Palace built in 1922).
Dining in a French atmosphere
Da Lat’s charm is now being rediscovered. High range resorts will be opening soon their doors. A dozen deteriorated French-built villas in Dalat were restored to their former glory to provide a retreat for those seeking a cool climate in the Central Highlands resort city. The French built the 2,000 elegant villas in the early 20th century with the aim of developing Dalat into the largest resort in Indochina.
Many are deteriorated or illegally occupied and local authorities were enticing developers to upgrade and transform the villas into hotel accommodation. Renovations were made on a string of villas in Le Lai street to turn the properties into the luxury Ana Mandara Six Senses resort. Of the 17 villas on site, which were constructed in 1920s and 1930s, 15 have been converted into fully serviced hotel lodgings, with the remaining two being converted into a restaurant and spa.
The villas provide 57 lovingly restored rooms with great effort taken to preserve their original design, decor and charm, according to the management company Six-senses Hotels, Resorts and Spas. The gently sloping hillside area where Ana Mandara Villas Dalat is located was originally known as the Bellevue Quarter, a nod to its history of rich French influence.
But the earliest restoration was the renaissance of the Sofitel Dalat Place Hotel. The hotel was built in 1922 and accommodated various French governors, King Bao Dai and other heads of state. It was restored and is now managed by Accor group.
The others involved 20 dilapidated villas on a five-hectare site on Nguyen Du street. The villas were built during 1950s as a retreat for French officials and affluent Vietnamese in the former Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City. As the villas were too deteriorated to be restored, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group decided to pull them down and make way for eight new buildings with a total of 100 rooms. French-built villas in Dalat often cover an area of 1,000 to 2,000 sqm. There are several palaces of over 10,000 sqm such as Palace 1, 2 and 3, which were reserved for high-ranking French officials and Emperor Bao Dai, the last king of Vietnam. The villas often have three storeys and are nestled amidst pine trees on high locations or by lakes with open views of flower gardens, pine tree hills and valleys.
Wine tourism
“We are planning to set up wine tour”, Daniel explains. “It is very interesting to bring this new concept here in Vietnam. In France, such tours already exist in Bordeaux area. They are very successful. Here, as wine consumption increases, I am sure that many people will be interested in knowing wine making process, wine tasting. All that in a 5-star resort with a chilly climate where you can relax. They will be able to taste different wines, at different stages, different ages, in different blends”. The tour will allow tourists to visit grape wines, wineries and it will of course comprise wine tasting with an experienced sommelier. “But don’t worry, Daniel continues, you won’t have to drive after wine sampling as you room will be in the same compound, so you can taste everything you want ! But connoisseurs taste only a sip of wine, and they do not swallow. That is the reason why you always see a bucket nearby during a wine tasting”.
“I want to educate Vietnamese’s palate. There is already a tradition of cognac. The cognac market is huge in Vietnam, like in other countries in Asia, but more and more people are turning to wine. As it already happened in Japan for instance, people are going for wine to accompany their diner. The alcohol volume is lower than cognac, which allows women to enjoy a glass. And wine is more upscale compared to beer”, Daniel analyses. “It is high time people know about wine, not only through advertising. And for sure, people will be happy to know about the French Paradox !”. This paradox summerises the low heart disease despite high fat intake: the paradox by which the French have a low incidence of coronary heart disease despite a diet that is typically high in fat and cholesterol. Proposed explanations include the antioxidant effect of flavonoids in red wine and the protective effect of olive oil on the heart. “One glass of wine a day keeps the doctor away !”.
Now in Dalat, it is like History resuming. “It is funny that the region was discovered by the French in the early 1900s and that now in 2008, A Frenchman like me rediscovers it through wine, which is also a typical French product !”, Daniel laughs.
