Climate, religion, passion: producing and consuming wine in Indonesia

Sweet Travels still keeps the door open to the world before the Corona virus.

On the journey one year ago, Simone and Mischa moved on to Indonesia. Indonesia consists of more than 17,000 islands, of which about 8,000 are inhabited. It’s a country of almost 2 million km². The inhabitants speak several hundred languages, and it is the fourth most densely populated country in the world, with almost 300 million inhabitants. Indonesia is mostly known for tourism and for being a multi-religious country (Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity).

We would like to take a first approach to Indonesia through wine. Wine and wine tasting in Indonesia is not necessarily what you’d expect to hear about this country. We tasted wine in Bali, and we talked to Hatten and Sababay Wineries about the passion of making wine, about producing/consuming wine in a predominantly Muslim country, and about the challenges such as the Balinese climate. Located just south of equator, Bali is known for growing rice and exotic fruits. But wine grapes? Isn’t it just too hot?

At Hatten, we talked to James Kalleske, an Australian winemaker at the Hatten Winery. And at Sababay, we were able to talk to Evy Gozali, CEO and co-founder of the winery, and to French winemaker Nicolas Delacressonniere.

Playlist:
Gus Teja – Galang Bulan (The Full Moon)
Gus Teja – Morning Happiness
Suara Parahiangan – Sabilulungan
Gus Teja – Hidden Beauty