Vino, vidi, vici in the mountains

Michael Juergens was pleasantly surprised when he went to Bhutan to run a marathon. Surprised to realise there weren’t any, he wrote a white paper on why and how Bhutan could grow world-class wine, and sent it to the government. Juergens teamed up with Ann Cross to start Bhutan Wine Company, and work began in 2019. The fledgling company, the only outfit growing grapes and making wine in landlocked Bhutan, now has approximately 200 acres of vineyards, growing 16 different grape varietals—nine red and seven white—spread across nine sites in Bhutan. Cross, the CEO, says she’s been in love “with the idea of Bhutan ever since I read a book in high school about a Canadian woman who moved there to teach English”.