Many colleagues today bemoan that we are losing our true winemaking artisans to a kind of oenological ‘industrial revolution’, where wines are made in labs, by recipe, to satisfy ‘target consumers’, ‘market profiles’ and ‘Wine Critics’ (gate-keepers as they are referred to by trade insiders). The result being that all we may end up with is a universal mouth-wash so bland and boring as to inspire epitaphs instead of poetry.
Our Cambodian Correspondent, Darren Gall, finds himself in a North Korean Room 39 enclave and partaking in a little ‘covert activity’ in the Penh!
For most of us, life north of the 38th parallel is impossible to witness first hand and is only ever glimpsed through the eyes of the, (mostly western) media. Who can ever forget the award winning cover of The Economist: glorious leader, Kim Jong-Il, waving stiffly to the crowd, resplendent in trademark 50’s-jump-suit-cum-grey-safari-suit, under the heading ‘Greetings Earthlings’!
The Wandering Palate Cambodia correspondent, Darren Gall, puts out the fire of spice in his mouth with the requisite wines.
“The year was 1968. We were on recon in a steaming Mekong Delta. An overheated private removed his flak jacket, revealing a t-shirt with an iron-on sporting the Mad slogan “Up with miniskirts!” Well, we all had a good laugh, even though I didn’t quite understand it. But our momentary lapse of concentration allowed Charlie to get the drop on us. I spent the next 3 years in a POW camp, forced to subsist on a thin stew made of fish, vegetables, prawns, coconut milk and four kinds of rice. I came close to madness trying to find it here in the States but they just can’t get the spices right.” Seymour Skinner
…mintiness with peaches and strawberries …a chocolate smokiness with leathery insinuations …hessian …apes and peacocks …and a faint, elusive yet startling aroma of wine…”
– Michael Leunig, cartoonist
Thus describes the bewilderment, exasperation and downright skepticism expressed by uninitiated imbibers when it comes to decoding wine tasting notes (including my own).
What is the point of all this concocted jargon and these outpourings of adjectives? Does it have any real meaning or purpose? Is it helpful, or merely designed to baffle us?
Our Cambodia Correspondent, Darren gall, finds himself well at home in a Izakaya, if not somewhat culturally anomalous to Cambodia…
Phnom Penh’s uber-in-style Japanese restaurant Yumi is modeled on the traditional ‘Izakaya’ restaurants found all over Japan. The word Izakaya is a compound word, loosely translated as ‘a shop to sit and drink sake’. Izakaya restaurants are typically small spaces with a long bar and a handful of tables that serve what could be described as Japanese ‘tapas’ style cuisine to go with the core purpose of their being, which is of course drinking!
I tend to navigate my way around Phnom Penh by my favourite glasses of wine -not a simple matter of where I can get a decent glass at a reasonable price mind you- but places where I can take refuge from the chaos.
These establishments have to be places that have a certain atmosphere, an ambiance that I warm to, places that make me thank the gods that I am alive and well and living in Cambodia, where the food is as good as the food choices and the wines are plentiful and generally inexpensive.
