10-08-21
About 3,000 years ago, a type of Chinese alcoholic beverage Huangjiu(or Yellow Wine黃酒) was made from grains. More than 1,000 years ago, liquor Baijiu or Shaojiu(白酒或燒酒) was made after a process of distillation.
It has been the tradition in some of my known families to pass the interest in wine through generation to generation. I have great respect for these people. The family tradition helps them define who they are. Nigel Fong(方志基)’s family was in Tai O, one of the oldest fishing village in Hong Kong, 100 years ago. His ancestors sold wine there. Nigel laughed, “Being family is determined more by wine than by blood in my case. I might be born with a wine glass. When I went to the UK to study at 13, I fell in love with Scotch whisky. In 2012, I acquired a winery in Scotland and later took up a very old wine shop called J.L. Gill which has been in Perthshire, Scotland since 1875. I now buy and sell liquors as a business as much as a hobby. I meet my wine buddies regularly. I elect something that I love and can absorb myself in it. I am lucky.”
Nigel remembered, “Westerners stored wine in a barrel. We Chinese kept wine in a jar. In the old days, only the very rich could afford imported foreign wine. Local Hongkongers bought wine from the ‘mom-and-pop’ grocery stores which displayed jars of wine of different tastes. The price charged was calculated by the number of bamboo or coconut ladles of wine given. Customers used rice or soup bowls to contain wine. When I look back, I am filled with a strong sentimental wistful affection for the simple past.” I added, “Bars in those years were not meant for ordinary people. Men drank at home or street food stalls with friends. Tired of Chinese wine, they might switch to beer who was not a kind of expensive drink. The first beer brewery in Hong Kong is San Miguel from the Philippines which was established in Sham Tseng in 1948. Teenagers enjoyed beer mixing cream soda, a sweet soft drink flavoured with vanilla.”
Nigel gave an account of the history, “Whisky used to be more popular than other spirits. Due to massive advertising campaigns, French brandy became overwhelmingly successful in Hong Kong in the 1970s. Brandy is a spirit distilled from fruit and the liked brands were such as Hennessy, Martell, Camus and Courvoisier. XO (extra old) Cognac usually refers to the brandy with a long period of age. Interestingly, the term ‘XO’ then became a social jargon meaning ‘first rank’ or ‘high class’, only understood by people in Hong Kong.”
I challenged, “Can Hong Kong produce great local wine?” He frowned, “Impossible. Hong Kong does not even have natural wells anymore. We do not have high mountains. Can we use tap water or distilled water to make good wine? Our spring water, I guess, has been polluted in one way or another in a big and crowded city like Hong Kong. Good water is critical for good wine.”
Nigel mused like a scholar, “I want to recall and express my respect for a wonderful place called Fenwick Pier(分域碼頭) which was built in Wan Chai in the 19th century. It is gone for good now and will never return. What a pity! It is a non-government pier serving military sailors from the western world. Fenwick Pier was seen as the lighthouse of hospitality, answering questions from visitors about Hong Kong, giving postal service, providing the finest tailoring for custom suits and most importantly, supplying reliable wine and spirits from different countries to the thirsty sea-based men to Hong Kong. The wine shop there was almost like a museum devoted to the display of great alcoholic objects of magnificent interest and value. Fenwick Pier arcade contributed to the intellectual and emotional connections, if not explorations, between people in Hong Kong and the outside wine world.” I added, “Wan Chai used to be a famous area of bars and nightclubs because of Fenwick Pier and the sailors. Remember the world-known film about a bargirl in Wan Chai called The World of Suzie Wong?” I remember the good old days of going to Macau, the nearest Portuguese Colony city to Hong Kong, for great European food. At the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal, one could buy Mateus Rose and Port Wine. Outside the Terminal, there was a night market where vendors performed kung fu in order to attract people to buy their ‘3-snake’ wine in low grade bottles.
‘It takes a lot of good beer to make great wine’. It takes a lot of wine to make an expert. Nigel always told me, “I already drank too much out of the work necessity. Life is now too short for me to drink bad wine.” I can certainly see that Nigel knows and loves wine. I am therefore very embarrassed in front of him as I could not tell the difference between Bordeaux and Burgundy.
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