Mr. Nguyen Vinh Hao (left) is learning about know-how of Go Den wine brewery at distillery of  the old Tam Minh. Photo by K.N

In order to find out the most precious, typical and delicious wine specialities of each region (the North, the Central and the South Vietnam),  Mr. Hao has to frequent his friends and read a lot of books. I ask him why he doesn’t buy a lot of available wines in the market. He answers with a shake of his head: “ I can easily get a famous wine of my like just after a phone call now. But tradenames are tradenames. I am afraid of buying fake or bad-quality alcohol. It is the quality of the alcohol is the most important thing to me. Unlike mass products, the hand-made wine is very special because each batch of the wine has its own unique flavour. Its quality depends on many factors such as ferment, weather, heat of fire, etc. In brief, the quality is not stable and I like to hunt for quintessence of the contingency”.

It actually costs him a lot of time and effort to find out a distillery of renown. Before making decision to buy a kind of wine, he must do many meticulous tests and surveys. In order to buy genuine lang Van wine, Nguyen Vinh Hao himself together with his wife has to make a long and difficult journey to Van village, Van Ha Commune, Viet Yen District, Bac Giang Province. “ Two of us travels to Ha Noi, then Bac Giang along Cau River by a very small boat. Arriving Van village, we feel an unspeakable and interesting emotion. Narrow tortuous roads leading to the village are surrrounded by old brick wall with strange-looking broken tile. Many parts of the wall fall off as if Father Time touches them. The village looks ancient. Odour of wine warfs everywhere” narrates Mr. Hao about the journey. Hao asks a lot of villagers and knows that distillery of a 90-year-old Tom is the most famous. Mrs. Tom has been specialized in wine brewery since he was 17 years old. Now, the wine brewery know-how is descended to his 7 sons, 2 daughters and great-grandchildren. Fermented sticky wine made by Mrs. Tom’s distillery is still the most delicious in the village.

Mr. Hao then travels to the South Vietnam to look for Go Den wine. He fortunately meets Mr. Pham Hong Chuong, General Director of Vietnam Wine Joint-stock Co. Chuong deeply interests in Go Den wine and is now managing a wine brewery factory. He applies traditional ways of wine brewing together with modern techniques. The two souls has an interesting conversation. Chuong himself then introduces Hao to distillery of Mr. Tam Minh, one the most famous distilleries in Go Den locality. 4 generations of Mr. Tam Minh has followed the wine brewery career. Alleys to Go Den village are also narrow and bendy. Mr. Tam Minh shows Hao know-how of traditional wine brewery, taking him go a tour round Go Den distilleries. Then, Hao is treated with impetuous rice wine which has quite unique bitter flavour of rice powder. In Hao’s words, the bitterness is “likable addictive drink”. Returning home, Hao sees a lot of Go Den tradename wine on sale at stalls along national highways but he feels very happy and satisfactory with the precious Go Den wine made by Mr. Tam Minh. He also feels happy at the newly-established friendship with the generous old man at Go Den land of southern wine.

The last in the list of precious wine is certainly Bau Da, representing for typical wine in the Central Vietnam. The wine-hunting journey is at last over with fruitful result. Nguyen Vinh Hao is now waiting for his friends and those who are interest in the impetuous flavour of lang Van wine, pungent taste of Bau Da wine and long-lasting light odour of Go Den wine to the wine party.

• Written by Ky Nam
• Translated by To Uyen