Monday, February 06, 2006
Kaoliang wine with Chinese medicine
At the table of my father in law, over the Chinese New Year, we mostly drank Kaoliang during the Chinese New Year feasts last week. Kaoliang is a very strong distilled liquor made from fermented sorghum on the island of Kinmen. It reaches 55%! The best quality kaoliang is called Er-Guo-Tou, which is what we had, with a twist: my father in law let it rest with a variety of Chinese medicine (mostly red dates, some Ginseng) so that the transparent liquor turned into a nice brown Cognac color. The result is quite stunning! The reason I mention it is that the taste reminded me very much of the 1999 raw Menghai 7542 qizi bing I recently purchased! No wonder pu-erh is so often compared to wine!
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Yes, I agree about the connection between wine and puerh. Living in California and being married to a wife that works in the fine food industry, I know plenty of people who are serious collectors of wine. The obvious connection between wine and puerh is the potential for age to improve the experience.
A topic of discussion on several boards lately has been what to look for in a tea that has potential for aging. What struck me was that not all teas are candidates. As with wine, it should have enough strength that it still has character left after aging. However, as with wine, a bad tea will only turn into an old bad tea over time. As they say in Texas (where I grew up), "you can't polish a turd"
(pardon my lanquage.)
Stephane, would you be willing to discuss your ideas on what to look for in a tea as a candidate for aging.
ps. I am thinking of your 2001 Aincient tree Yi Wu as a perfect tea for aging. (yes, I plan to purchase some more in the future...)
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