A taste of Alsace & 5 Snakes Wine

---

A taste of Alsace in Hanoi

Ha, not the tour leader, but our friend in Hanoi (like we said it is a popular name) had recently been to Paris. While there she had dropped in on my “petit cousin”, Jean who gave her a bottle of his Cremant d’Alsace for us to share. It was one of the last bottles of the vintage we had worked on together when last in France. his was a really special gift, which we decided to drink, together with Ha’s mother, father and brother at their house in Hanoi. It was great to meet them for the first time and discuss various snippets of their family history. Ha’s father is a very interesting man, having been a doctor in the North Vietnamese Army, then having worked in countries such as Algeria.

While sharing the wine, we snacked on watermelon and other fruits, looking at family photos and pictures of some of Ha’s sisters weddings. Her parents are obviously very proud of their children. In return, it is obvious that they have a lot of respect for their parents also. Ha’s younger brother Thanh was good company also and we organised to meet up later that evening for dinner.

Would you prefer dog or 5 snakes wine?

Thanh gave us a few choices of where we would prefer to meet for dinner. He told us it was an auspicious period in the lunar calendar to visit a speciality dog restaurant or if that was not to our taste we could try a place that specialised in Vietnamese wines. I was ok with either (when in Rome), Lorenza decided that the wine experience would be enough for her this time around.

So we met Thanh later at the Highway 4 restaurant, it had a long list of local wines to savour, mostly rice based and made in a similar style to port wine. You can order a taster tray of glasses of various wines and then see which takes your fancy. Naturally, we tried as many that were on offer as possible, including the Five Snakes wine. Lorenza decided to skip this one, so I had to force myself to down two glasses of it. Thanh warned me that I would probably feel some interesting affects from this wine later in the night. It is reputedly a good booster for a mans virility and also it is supposed to keep you awake for most of the night. Naturally, this warning came after I had downed the two glasses!

Next morning I had no hangover, but at 2am I did find myself wide awake and in need of a cold shower!

---

Photos

Cremant D'Alsace in Hanoi
with Ha's family

Ha & Jean in Paris
Ha with my cousin in Paris. Great to see that 6 degrees of separation stuff in action I think!

Cremant D'Alsace in Hanoi
ahh the taste of Alsace in completely strange, but very friendly surroundings

Dinner with Thanh
he warned me about the 5 snakes wine affects

Dinner with Thanh
fun night drinking Vietnamese wines