Yes! "Listen" to wine in the true sense, not drink to "hear" whether it's good or bad as is often the case. It is a miracle of a woman who can be classified as an elite artist. The old lady still lives in the most famous wine making village in Vietnam: Van Village. Mr. Tom, 95 years old this year, in Van Ha, Viet Yen, Bac Giang is probably the person who makes the most impression on all wine connoisseurs if they have the opportunity to taste the wine he cooks.
Mr. Nguyen Trung Tuan, a former colonel of the People's Army of Vietnam, Mr. Tom's eldest son, called from Ho Chi Minh City to tell me two news: One is good news: My mother, Mrs. Tom, has been awarded the title of Folk Artist. She recently came to receive notice from the Commune People's Committee… Thank you, Tan Linh, for being the first person to discover and honor your golden hand and your reputation. Fine wine in Van Village. Second, the bad news: My grandmother just had a stroke. He's 96 years old this year. He probably didn't expect that title, but anyway, there's nothing better than a nearly 100-year-old woman who has never left the bamboo fence of this village and is suddenly honored.
Receiving news from former Colonel Tuan, my heart felt strange. Congratulations to you because your winemaking talent has been recognized.
Remember the time when poet Nguyen Duy's tour group went to Van to look for delicious and strange things in Vietnam to find fine wine. As soon as she entered the gate of the house located deep in the alley in the middle of Van Village, the old lady had just stepped into the yard when suddenly architect Nguyen Trong Huan – who was considered a famous and sophisticated wanderer – suddenly knelt down and bowed to Mr. Tom. I printed the photo that Nguyen Duy took with me in my essay Fine wine Van Huong in a Tet newspaper in 2010. After that article, Nguyen Duy went to Nguyen Trung Tuan's house to congratulate him and bought a liter of Van Huong My Tu to light incense for Mr. Vo Van Kiet. I swear that Nguyen Trong Huan has never bowed to anyone other than the souls of his parents. Yet he returned to Kinh Bac and knelt down in the yard to worship a barefoot old woman. Nguyen Trong Huan made a noble gesture when he knelt at the feet of the woman who brewed precious wine.
Uncle Tom's fame is not only because he cooks delicious pots of yellow-flower glutinous rice wine and recently his youngest son also brewed excellent chrysanthemum steamed wine, but he is famous for his super talent of… listening to wine. The wine is poured into the bowl, the sound of the wine flowing into the bowl causes foam, the sound of the wine flowing is different each time, you know whether the wine is heavy or light so you can stop cooking. Listening to the sound of wine being poured into the bowl, he knew how much proof the wine was. No need to taste it like every wine maker, the old lady still knows its deliciousness… It only happens in that village. And that alone is enough to glorify the land of Van Ha (Clouds on the River) on the banks of Nhu Nguyet… The next morning, from Bac Giang, Nguyen Trung Ca, Mr. Tom's youngest son, called me to tell me that he was paralyzed on one leg, but spoke and heard normally… I pray for him to fully recover soon. And congratulations to Van Village because people who listen to wine can finally continue to listen to the wine flow so that Van Village can offer delicious wine to the world along with the extremely noble culture of inviting wine and enjoying wine, considered a cultural feature of Kinh Bac still today…
Tan Linh