Laurent GRANIER is a French national who was born and grown in the vineyards of the Southern Rhone River Valley, at the foothills of the Dentelles de Montmirail with the picturesque Provencal villages of Beaumes de Venise, Gigondas, Vacqueyras and Chateauneuf du Pape as neighbors.
Laurent spent his teenage years harvesting Muscat grapes in his weekends and his summer holidays welcoming foreign guests at the cellar of the Vignerons de Beaumes de Venise’s Balma Venitia’s desk. He was primarily dealing with the English speaking visitors who came to sample and purchase wines produced by the cooperative.
Laurent’s tourism management studies took him around the globe and wherever grapes were grown he visited vineyards from Adelaide’s Mac Laren Vale to La Rioja passing by the Celliers de l’Atlas in Morocco more recently to the more exotic Monsoon Valley in Thailand!
Today, Laurent is based in Vientiane, Laos, SE Asia, where he founded and leads an inbound tour company, Laos Mood Travel. It specializes in tailor-made thematic holidays to Laos and neighboring countries like Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and China’s Yunnan Province. The vision of Laos Mood is to be an “Eye-opener on the Unseen” and hence proposing trips that go beyond the ordinary.
Laurent’s passion for a “work well done” and unusual quality products teased his interest when he got to hear about the little-known “New Latitude Wines of Thailand”. With his Lao and French colleagues, they took the road overland into Thailand across the Mekong in the summer 2012 and visited 6 regions of production of grapes that make wine between the 13th and 17th parallel. They met the passionate owners, grape growers, viticulturists, oenologists, cellar managers, chefs, marketing managers and staffs that take great pride in giving birth to a wine cautious community in Thailand through the idea of drinking quality wine with moderation! And upon their return, it was decided that a “New Latitude Wines of Thailand and Laos” was to be designed to cover this corner of the world that has much to offer the intrepid and curious foodies!
Laurent Granier will be delivering a talk titled
Promoting Wine Tourism in South – East Asia – not an easy task! Our experience!
Unfortunately, Laurent was unable to travel for iwinetc and deliver his talk. We hope he is able to present at a future iwinetc.
See the complete Conference programme of talks