Chinese New Year
Hints of Guoba
By Joe Fattorini
Chinese New Year normally brings recommendations of wines to have with Chinese food. Well, you could try. Modern China has 1.4 billion people eating dishes across eight different cuisine traditions.
Anhui, Cantonese, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Szechuan and Zhejiang. So this Chinese New Year, eat what you like, and drink what you like. But see if you can taste "in Chinese".
The Wine Show visited Shanghai in series one. We were looked after by the country's leading sommelier, Yang Liu MS. He's the country's first Master Sommelier, and something of a Chinese wine hero. For all that, he's also funny, humble, and brilliant company.
“Look at the food" says Yang. "Look at the ingredients. Taste them. Feel them. And use Chinese words... Chinese Flavours to present wines in a Chinese way to Chinese people… It’s very difficult to generalise what Chinese people like. People from different regions have different tastes and different preferences and different preferences in wines. It’s difficult.” He says. “I still haven’t mastered it yet.”
Yang took me to a wet market. One of the last in Shanghai. Possibly one of the last in China now. He plucks something unfamiliar and asks if I’ve tried it before. “Try this – a Wax Berry”. It’s also called a Wolf Berry. Or a Yang Mei. Or 杨梅. It looks like a purple bauble from a Christmas tree; a sphere covered in glistening gems. In the West, someone would offer you a glass of wine, and then ask what fruit it tastes of. But in the topsy-turvy world of wine in China, Yang asks me what wine it tastes of. “It’s a rich berry taste… dark… between a raspberry and a strawberry”. Then it comes to me. “It tastes like Pinot Noir”. Yes, high quality Burgundy. And that’s true. Not just any Pinot Noir, but Cote de Nuits. From a good estate, in a venerable village.
“We are always professional when we’re training" says Yang. "We use the WSET Systematic Approach and language. But there are also flavour description differences”. He runs through a few. Some are familiar to an adventurous Western food and wine enthusiast. 绿茶 or Green Tea, 荔枝 or Lychee, 酱油 or Soy Sauce. But others are less familiar. 枇杷 or Loquat, 酸梅 or Umeboshi, or 普洱. That's Puerh Tea.
“Sommeliers in China have to learn in a language that they can’t use” says Yang Lu. “Like cassis. It’s something people will have never seen in their life. So you have to use local foods and ingredients in a way that’s not pretentious. Sometimes we have to describe wine not by its own characteristics, but through a person, or music”
I ask Yang what he means. He tells me a story. About when he first tried Meursault. All his class was talking about "buttered toast. But we don't have buttered toast". But there was another, more emotive meaning too. "Buttered toast gives you a feeling. It's the sort of thing your mother gives you as a comfort when you are a child". This added a layer to the description. Until he worked out what the Chinese equivalent was.
Guōbā. 锅巴. The crust of scorched rice that forms on the bottom of a pan when you're boiling it over a direct flame. "I remember as a child that was a treat. It has that toasted, almost buttery quality of Meursault. But it was what my mother gave me if I was being good. It had the same feeling."
Some people suggest "Gewurztraminer is a good choice". That's like saying Claret works with everything from Faro to Helsinki. And onwards to Vladivostok.
So this Chinese New Year, treat yourself to something with Wolf Berry aromas (Red Burgundy). Or Soy Sauce (Chianti Classico). Or Umeboshi (Merlot). And if you think your mother would say you really deserve a treat, Guoba-rich Meursault.
Watch Joe's shenanigans in Shanghai from Series 1 on Amazon Prime UK.
Get inspired with trying some new tea from Postcard Teas and Rare Tea Co
