The first and only true Balinese winery, Hatten Wines has been at work since 1994 bringing to hotel‚ and restaurant‚ tables a taste of Bali in a most peculiar way. Their unique winery defies traditional winemaking practices by using unconventional grapes grown on the north coast of the island. Hatten products are natural wines, free of coloring and flavoring, made from local grapes and not their concentrated juice versions. Like the wine, the founder, Gus Rai, is also a Balinese native.
Who ever came up with the crazy idea of producing a wine on Bali?
It all started in 1994 when one of my friends posed a challenging question: why don’t you try making wine in Bali? Since my family business, the Dewi Sri Company, was already manufacturing Brem Bali (coconut wine) and Arak Bali (coconut gin), we had a lot of knowledge and experience in the alcohol business and also had a license to produce alcohol products. But when I started making wine we were woefully short of equipment, just a wood press and our staff stamping grapes!
Are you a wine lover yourself?
At Malang University I studied food processing and had been involved in the family business making alcoholic beverages, it was not a big stretch for me to produce wine. I have since learned to appreciate wines and wine making by traveling in France and Australia and I have also learned much about tasting from our wine maker.
Who is your official enologist (wine taster)?
Vincent Desplat, a French National who studied at the Montpellier Winemaking School and worked in Australia for over 12 years.
Why should a Balinese love wine?
Wine is foreign to the Balinese taste and most Balinese find it sour (kecut). Our drinking habits are inclined towards sweeter drinks which balance our spicy food. It’s normal that most Balinese will not enjoy wine the first time. As for the new wine drinker we suggest that they try sweet wine to accustom their palate to the different taste.
What was your first vintage best seller? How many vintages so far have been issued?
Our Rosé is our all-time best seller, the latest vintage being
146. Our first award was a Bronze Medal we won at the London Wine & Spirit Competition in 2003 for our semi-sweet Muscat, Alexandria. We produce wines on average fourteen times per year because we produce three wine crops per year on a number of different plots of land, resulting in fresh produce all year round. This means that we don’t have to produce wine in bulk every year and we don’t need to add preservatives to our wines.
How difficult was it to get the idea of a Bali-made wine off the ground?
It was indeed not an easy task. We still have difficulties in enlisting support from Bali residents who initially tried our wines and made their decision, never willing to try our wines again. They haven’t taken into account all of our hard work over the last 10 years which have resulted in award winning wines. We have found more respect in our export markets like Europe, Maldives and Singapore.
What is a common misconception about producing wine in the tropics?
Several vintages have had different tastes and colors, most people thinking that this is a winemaking flaw, not knowing that we are dealing with dry and wet season grapes resulting in differences in their skin thickness.
Are there any funny things that have happened in the early days which thwarted your success?
I remember this event very well. We were conducting a blind wine tasting for our white sparkling wine Tunjung at the Jakarta Wine Circle a few years back. All of the attendees, consisting of 250 people including ambassadors and wine lovers along with wine amateurs, tried our wine without knowing it was made by Hatten Wines. When the Guest of Honor, The Chairman from Hongkong Wine Society announced that it was a Hatten wine, congratulating us for its quality, the whole room applauded and gave us a standing ovation. From that experience we learned that a blind tasting neutralizes the psychological effect of knowing the product is from Bali. That standing ovation made me feel very proud of Bali, of our wines, and made all the hard work worthwhile.
What nationalities buy which Hatten wines?
Asians love our Alexandria & Pino De Bali, Europeans prefer our Rosé and Aga Red. The French favorite is Rosé since it’s refreshing and not too sweet. We export to Europe (Netherlands, Belgium, UK), The Maldives and Singapore and shortly we will start importing our wines into the USA. Our most popular overall vintage is Rosé.
What kind of people gather at your wine tastings?
Mostly our customers. When we have an event we send out invitations to over 1000 invitees from all over Bali. We try to make our events entertaining and creative.
Do you actually have a wine cellar at Hatten Wines?
Yes, of course! It houses our wine museum where we collect 9 bottles from each vintage we have ever produced, our Wine Barrel where we age our red wine, champagnes and fortified wines.
To experience Hatten Wine vintages first hand, visit The Cellardoor, Komplek Dewa Ruci #3, Jln. Bypass Ngurah Rai,Kuta, 80361 Bali, tel: 62 361 767 422; fax: 62 361 768 418; email: marketing@hattenwines.com, website: www.hattenwines.com. Open daily Monday - Saturday, 8.30 am - 6.30 pm.
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Copyright@2004 Al Hickey
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