Friday Read: Hidden in the Shadows

The realisation first occurred in Ho Chi Minh City, after a charming waitress at 'The Garlik' restaurant produced a concise wine list. The restaurant was full of middle-class Vietnamese – and a handful of tourists – most of whom were drinking wine. I observed a similar scenario one week later, at Riedel's bar-cum-restaurant in central Bangkok. The sommelier was proselytising the virtues of white Burgundy – one of the many bottles contained in a wall-mounted enomatic machine - to a young Thai couple. I left the restaurant convinced that due to the media's powerful China obsession, the potential of these cultures to love wine was being grossly underreported.