By Michael Coupar
Many years ago, back when a TV still cost a week’s wages, red was a colour to be feared, and China was something you drank tea out of rather than flew to for a spot of shopping, I backpacked in that distant country. While out there I sampled a few of their ‘rice wines’, getting a little inebriated along the way. I liked what I drank, and also what I saw – many came in special, fascinatingly shaped bottles -, and so packed what I could in a big box and shipped it back to the UK for later pleasures.
Several thousand miles and several months later, and not long back home, I learned that one of the world’s largest wine collections – real, grape based wine this time – was in my own home town, above a mainstay of the local restaurant scene. A certain French number. They also happened to have some decent lunchtime deals. So, one lunchtime I went for a meal, and while there took the opportunity to say hello to the owner, mention the Chinese wines, and asked if it was possible to see his collection. He was interested and yes it was.
I took the bottles in a few days later, we chatted about the ‘rice wines’ I’d found, what they tasted like and so on, and the guy then asked if I’d like to sell him the wines I’d shipped back. I told him I’d think about it. In the meantime he gave me a bottle of ‘good wine’ to take away. At the time I knew next to nothing about wines but a friend advised me the wine really was good and a ‘keeper’.
In the end I decided not to sell the wines, In fact I decided to not even open them for myself. They became souvenirs rather than potential liquid pleasure. The years passed and I began to drink more wine and learned more about it. But I forgot I had the ‘keeper’. There was a birthday coming up so I thought ‘great, we’ll go with this one’.
The day arrived and the food was to be lovely. I retrieved the ‘keeper’, opened it up, and as you’ll probably guess, smelled my mistake. The wine was way past its best and fit only for the drain. In fact it may never have been that ‘good’. Soon after I decided to open the rice wine bottles after all. I think you can guess the result.
What I learned from this was two things. No, three things. First, always have a suitable backup bottle! Second, learn about wines yourself, rather than relying on what other people might or might not know. And third, drink them! A good wine is only a good wine if you can actually taste it. Otherwise it is just an anonymous liquid in a coloured bottle.
Salut!
Tags: Argento competition, China, old wine