FEATURE: READING PHILOSOPHY IN “DRINKING”

Speaking of wine writers in the Greater China Region, many will think of Ronny Lau (hereinafter Ronny). Ronny is “a master of all professions” and is known for a number of titles, e.g. chairman of Hong Kong Wine & Spirits Writers Association, the first Chinese Super Tuscan winemaker. He started to write about food and drinks in the 80s, shifted his career and entered the recording industry in the 90s, and established Hong Kong’s first music club in 1992. He has published six wine books and released two music-wine combination CDs.

Q: You are a well-established musician and wine expert. You make music and wine a perfect combination in many of your articles. How did you come up with the idea to combine these two?

A: In 2018, Warner Music invited me to make an album about wine. I didn’t want to just pick some songs that I love; instead I wanted to do it a bit more scientifically, so I went searching. And I found that Heriot-Watt University in Scotland had conducted a research titled Wine & Song, which preliminarily shows that music will affect the taste of wine. But the research did not tell us why, and the music-wine combinations it recommended had failed to come into being in our life. Then I tried to dismantle wine and music, and successfully located the mutually-interactive elements in them. Eventually I came up with my own Music & Wine theory. To illustrate, you can have Sparking wine go with Chill Out music. The combination of the two will make you feel the medium tempo is beating like bursting bubbles in your mouth, creating a happy party atmosphere.

Q: Can you tell us about your latest publication?

A: My last book was Drink before Drunk in 2015, and recently the publisher told me that reading is becoming a hit again, so I decided to write something new this year. I go to Italy 5 or 6 times every year, and I am currently working on a tourism & wine culture book, A Wine Tour in Italy, which is based on my personal experience of over 10 years, presenting all 20 regions of Italy with pictures that I took. This book will give you a tour to wineries that I have personally visited, recommend wines that represent the region where they come from, and introduce some popular local dishes and sites.  Readers will tour around Italy while savouring 80 different kinds of wine.

Q: You have made an APP for your books. Does it help with the sales? What multimedia device do you think will create more added values to print books?

A: I will use Le Dialogue du Vin as an example. Since it is an audio book, the APP version does offer more convenience than the print version. Thus, the APP sells well, and it’s not just a promoting means for the print book; it is a best seller itself. I think whether multimedia should be used or not depends on the nature of the book. If it is just words, a digital version will not provide too much help.

Q: Can you disclose some of your publication plans?

A: Besides A Wine Tour in Italy, I am also publishing another book this year, 100 Favourites for 2019, to recommend my favourite 100 wines around the globe for the year, including grape wine, Japanese Sake, and whisky, etc., to my readers. Also, I am working on the third edition of Le Dialogue du Vin, updating some information and recommending more wines.

Tea books can be best sellers. Zhou Chonglin, born in the 80s, a tea writer in Taiwan, published War Tea — Tea and Imperial Rise and Fall in both traditional and simplified Chinese in 2012, which was later translated into German and English and eventually sold 500 thousand copies! Following that triumph, Zhou partnered up with Li Ming, a scholar on Yunnan tea culture, and published Min Guo Cha Fan (Tea Culture in the Period of the Republic of China) last year. The book explores the works, diaries and letters of the best-known literary giants, e.g. Hu Shi and Lu Xun, searching for their words that are tea-related and revealing to the readers the relationship between tea and their life.

While historical tea books bring people back to the old times, the thriving modern tea business and the integration of Chinese and western cultures are producing neologisms. One of them, as mentioned in the book Tea Sommelier, is “Tea Sommelier”. The author introduces 11 major tea producing areas and 22 types of tea with a lively tone. The book offers vital information about the business for tea sommeliers, and inspires tea lovers to explore more about tea.

Picture books are always popular among kids and adults. The drinks writing market is smart enough to have produced some excellent works, with their authors being an expert in both areas of drinks and illustrations. In 2016, ex-advertiser Zola shared with us interesting stories that happened in coffee shops, through the eyes of Olly, the owl that actively appears in his illustrated books. And Denis Lin, who is from Taiwan but now living in Shanghai, shows his wit and humour in Tipsy Sketch, a Gourmet Awards winner, a collection of precious illustrations he drew when he was traveling around the world looking for the best wines.

Lancat Su is a rising wine writer in the Chinese circle. She has been continuously publishing excellent works about wine for over 10 years in the wine community.  In addition to the forward-looking publication of the first independent wine magazine in mainland China, Drink Guide, which was well-received and made an IP product in the wine community, she also published a poetry book and wowed her readers: it turns out that wine writing can be "played" like this!

Q: Drink Guide is the first independent wine magazine published in mainland China. How did you come up with the idea to publish a wine magazine?

A: The first issue of Drink Guide was published in the spring of 2010, when the development of comprehensive magazines in mainland China was hitting a brick wall. I grew fond of magazine publishing when I was a kid, and since then had learned about the development of independent magazines abroad. Then I tried to organize the magazine contents into themes, making them theme-based, with each issue introducing a special theme. I think “independent” means “free”, “free from orthodox”, and “conforming to no conventional pattern or main stream”. Independence and freedom are important, serving as the foundation of creating, including making a wine magazine.

Q: Besides magazine, you have also published a collection of wine poems, Yi Er (literally meaning “one two” in Chinese). Can you tell us about the whole process?

A: It is an interesting book. Many people cannot find the book title. The book includes photos that I took when I was visiting the wine regions in 2008 to 2018. Each photo is labelled with time, place, and even a QR code which connects the book to your cell phone and you will find on your cell phone some stories related to the photo, which I will update every time when I revisit the place. It is an interesting design that allows the “book” to extend beyond papers. “Yi Er” means that everyone has least two sides which are not completely related, but also somewhat connected. This book is my favourite publication for these years.

Q: Can you disclose your future publication plan?

A: I am planning to publish a book named Experimenting Art in A Vineyard in 2019. Words speak a very limited language, so I want to use more abstract art forms to convey my message. The book will include comprehensive arts such as poem, photo, video, and painting, which altogether will create a “field”. I believe it will be a ground-breaking product, including its design, paper and printing. Actually publishing is a process defined by creativeness!

If drinks books are professional, then drinks magazines are more suitable for the whole family.

Taiwan《C3Offee》

C3offee is a treasure to coffee lovers. As one of the professional coffee magazines in the Chinese circle, it provides professional information, and helps coffee lovers to elevate their taste. The newest issue is themed “women power in major coffee enterprises”, introducing how women thrive in this business. In special topics such as roasting, brewing and cupping, some important female figures in Taiwan’s coffee business were interviewed, including Eleanor Wu, green coffee producer from ERGOS, Wang Shiyu, coffee designer, Chacha, international reviewer, Emily Tsai, roast master, and Fu Shen Jye from IMPCT, making the issue definitely a must-read.

Macao《Boozy》

Macao is a “UNESCO World City of Gastronomy”, a super destination for many gourmets. Gourmet magazines are many, but very few of them are about drinks. Boozy was born in such a context. As an independent magazine, Boozy is more like MOOK. The inaugural issue features “popular drinks shops on the internet”, telling the stories of the shops that look beautiful and sell amazing products in the Greater Bay Area. Also, the issue has videos going with the pop-up cover themed “family feast”, featuring drinks brought by guests and dished elegantly designed by chefs, to allow readers to discover the imagination of young cooks.

Japan《BRUTUS CASA》, ISSUE 1, 2019》

Japanese home life magazine CASA explores the time-honoured tea culture of Japan in its first issue of 2019. Sado (tea ceremony in Japanese) “pursues artistic beauty through most common ways of life”. The issue is about Sado, interviewing tea brewers and tea ware makers with a carefully designed approach, and introducing many interesting tea houses, tea cups and tea sets: definitely a must-have for fans of Japanese tea culture.

Editor of Tastes Gazette, a reader of fine arts, has published articles on beauty, life, music, movie and recipes on newspapers; has a personal website, “KakaJaw’s Kitchen and Kyoto”.

A food blogger in Macao, coffee expert, loves reading, traveling, cooking, drinking coffee and looking for delicious food.