Enjoy a vineyard tour on Bintan Island, Kepri
A number of residents on Bintan Island, Riau Islands Province, do not want to miss out on taking advantage of the momentum holidays to go on holiday to tourist attractions in the area.
One of the tourist attractions that is an option to fill this holiday is visiting the vineyards in Kampung Siantan, exactly across the road from the Tembeling Village office, Bintan Regency.
From the center of the capital of Riau Islands Province, Tanjungpinang City, the journey to the vineyard can be reached in around 20-30 minutes by motorbike or four-wheeled vehicle.
The vineyard is managed and owned by a middle-aged man Mahdinar and his son Izam.
Both of them used the land in front of the house covering an area of around 1,000 square meters which was transformed into a vineyard with a green house or greenhouse concept.
Fruit plants planted using potting media are now growing well and bearing fruit. The average stem height is more than 1 meter. The branches and leaves spread to cover the polyglass roof area used to cover the garden area.
Mahdinar said that work on this vineyard will start in 2021. From just six trees, it has now reached hundreds of trees. Here there are 30 types of wine variants, such as ninel, catalona larono, and several other variants originating from abroad.
He and his children chose grape gardening because, especially on Bintan Island, so far there have been no vineyards developed by residents or the government.
Armed with the learning process from social media, finally the grape planting carried out by the two of them bore fruit and they have been successfully harvested several times. The current plantation owner only sells the produce when the grapes are ready to be harvested.
Even though they failed to grow and bear fruit at the beginning of the first year, they never gave up trying. The phrase “results never betray efforts” is fitting to express Mahdinar’s efforts.
He bought some of the grape seeds online , while the rest he bought in Riau Islands.
To ensure the grape plants stay healthy and grow, he carries out routine irrigation, morning and evening, for half an hour each.
Apart from that, regular fertilization is also carried out so that the grapes bear fruit quickly. It’s not surprising that Mahdinar harvests grapes in his garden every 4 months.
Ecotourism attraction
Even though it is only around 2 years old, this vineyard has transformed into a new tourist attraction as well as a healing location for grape lovers.
On major holidays or weekends, Mahdinar vineyards receive many visitors, an average of 100 to 200 people per day.
Visitors who enter the vineyard area will be charged IDR 5,000 per person, while children are free. For a fee of that amount, visitors are allowed to tour the vineyard area and take selfies in it, accompanied directly by Mahdinar or his son Izam.
Visitors can also ask questions or simply want to know information about grape gardening procedures. Mahdinar will be very happy to answer it in a friendly and polite manner.
Visitors can also experience the sensation of harvesting grapes in the garden by spending IDR 8-10 thousand for every ounce of grapes harvested. After that, you can eat the wine straight away or take it home.
Mahdinar really needs to monetize his vineyard considering that the initial capital for creating this plantation reached hundreds of millions of rupiah.
One of the visitors from Tanjungpinang City, Hasan Basri, got a new experience after visiting the Mahdinar vineyard because there were no local residents who wanted to grow grapes.
He was amazed by Mahdinar’s tenacity and his family’s success in cultivating grapes on land on Bintan Island, which incidentally was a former bauxite mining area.
Hasan and his wife and children deliberately visited the vineyard to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays. Information about the existence of the vineyard in Tembeling Village was obtained by his son from a social media post from a colleague who had previously visited there.
The moment in the vineyard was filled with taking family selfies and directly harvesting various types of grapes to take home.
“The grapes are fresh. The taste varies, there are sour and sweet,” said Hasan.
On the other hand, the Bintan Regency Government also appreciates the innovation of the vineyard developed by Mahdinar and his son.
In fact, the Deputy Regent of Bintan, Ahdi Muqsith, immediately went down to inspect the location of the vineyard after it became the talk of the town in September 2023.
At that time, the deputy regent and his entourage toured every corner of the garden to see and taste several types of grape plants there.
He was also surprised by the vineyard owner’s understanding of this fruit, which is quite expensive. Moreover, the owner is an autodidact with no basics in agriculture, especially grape gardening.
Apart from being a business opportunity, this vineyard is also an ecotourism destination, namely an environmentally friendly tourism activity that prioritizes aspects of nature conservation, aspects of social and cultural economic empowerment of local communities, as well as aspects of learning and education.
It is proven that almost every week, the rows of grape trees here always have visitors. In fact, in the future there are plans for this garden land to be expanded by collaborating with the Tembeling Village-Owned Enterprise (BUMDes) so that business and ecotourism opportunities will further develop.
The success of the owner of the grape garden can also be an inspiration for anyone who wants to focus on working in the field they are involved in without giving up.
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