Wine and the clash of cultures

I went to Myanmar (Burma) once and stopped by a dusty road-side coffee stall. The locals were squatting on the kerb and drinking boiling hot coffee and tea in the scorching midday sun. What amazed me was the size of the cups which would take possibly 5 to 8 thimbles to fill up. They seem to take ages to take minute sips and chat away for hours exchanging stories of little significance, while their women slogged from dawn to dusk doing hard labour in the paddy fields or breaking rocks into smaller pieces with a standard hammer for building metal roads. The same coffee or chai drinking scene is common in Thailand, India and in the Middle East.

Wine drinking also has a western tradition and etiquette, often accompanied by pomp and ceremony. In formal wine tasting this includes, appearance, nose, palate, the swirling, the spitting and so on.

Now let me take you to a formal dinner I was invited to by a wealthy Chinese businessman. He wanted me to advise him on exporting New Zealand wines to China. He ordered some expensive wines for our dinner. The wine was simply poured into our glasses almost to the rim. My wealthy guest announced, “To long lasting friendship and business success”. (note, friendship precedes business). To my shock and horror, he then downed the entire glass of wine in one continuous gulp and then clinked his empty glass on the dinner table with a smirk. Guess what? He looked at me and expected me to do likewise. To avoid any embarrassment, I simply obliged only to have my empty glass quickly topped up by the waiter. Who needed a course in wine appreciation?

I then wondered whether he would also export this new wine drinking culture to China or was he unique in his drinking style? If there is a culture surrounding the drinking of coffee or tea in Asia, is there a clash of cultures when it comes to drinking wine?