Getting drunk with Ban Pho wine

Getting drunk with Ban Pho wine When the French discovered Sapa and its cloudy landscape, they explored the valley of Bac Ha and called it a mountain town in mist. Bac Ha is famous not only for its festivals, but also for its strong, delicious Ban Pho wine. Among the Mong men, it is customary to drink wine while visiting the outdoor fairs that occasionally spring up, often getting so drunk that their wives have to take them home on the backs of horses. This is typical for Ban Pho wine, the drink that creeps up on its happy victims who – grinning widely with cheeks all aflush – can sit back and further drink in the pretty Mong, Dao, and Tay women in their flowery dresses. Ban Pho isn’t a big village, four kilometers from the town of Bac Ha. Its road winds through the mountains, rice fields, corn covered valleys and forests of plum trees. The wine is made from that very corn that is grown here, instead of from rice. Most houses in Ban Pho keep a wine furnace, making a couple liters of the drink on Fridays for consumption in the kermises of Saturday and Sunday. Though it’s a simple wine to make, it requires a secret touch that has not yet been imitated by outsiders. Residents say that it must be made from water in the Hang De Stream, from corn that’s felt the mountains’ fog, and from Hong Mi seeds dried in the sun and the wind of Hoang Lien Mountain. Corn seeds are boiled, ground down and mixed with the Hong Mi seeds, which are used as yeast. The mix is then laid on the ground overnight, to be distilled later and stored in a wooden box for three or four days. While it is distilled, a fire beneath the still burns continuously. It is interesting, seeing a Mong kitchen, with its slabs of beef, goat, and pig hanging over the ovens. The meat is smoked, mixing in with the smell of wine to create a uniquely inimitable olfactory mix. Tourists are free to visit the villagers’ houses and enjoy the Ban Pho way of drinking wine and eating meet. Recently distilled wine is still warm and poured from wooden ladles. The very meat one eats here is marinated in the wine, too – creating a pungent-but-sweet flavor. Here in the northwest, tourists can enjoy natural landscapes, become acquainted with locals, and dine on special dishes – pigs, hill chickens, seven-color rice, sour pho – but none of it feels right without a nip of the famous Ban Pho wine. Source Vietnamnet