Vietnamese Wine & Cheese

Too hot for wine, too tired for cheese.

1. Introduction

French colonizers did not arrive in Vietnam empty hands. They came with guns, and bundles of non-native aliments to the tropical lands with strategies and hopes. In this text, I touched upon a part of wine and cheese history in Vietnam that I found missing or unclear in prior studies¹.

To retell how and when cheese appeared in Vietnam, I searched the archived French documents on the first 20 years of French colonization. Afterward, I used recent statistics on the consumption of cheese to illustrate the status of the food at present. Meanwhile, the wine story was rather less comprehensive using only numbers and interpretations from diasporic views. Altogether, I aim to examine if there is any significance in the relationship between these foods and Vietnamese cuisine in the past century.

*Disclaimer #1: foreign aliments have been nurtured by people from different economic classes, from different regions of different climates, et cetera. It is worth noticing that the French arrived and changed the landscape of different regions of Vietnam at different times. Hence, no one origin story fits all. Although, I tried my best to be objective to retell eventful stories of all these ailments, nevertheless, the story is still subjective due to the complexity mentioned above. Hence, I apologize for any conflicts that these may create and beg for your kindness to contact and inform about your takes. I will be all ears and fear none to see the bigger picture together.

*Disclaimer #2: these writings were part of preliminary research for the project Objets du Vietnam colonial et leurs evolutions that I participated in early 2023.

2. Cheese

In the first few years of colonialization, foreign aliments started to appear on the mainland of Vietnam. This was supported by the French colonial government for two reasons: one is economical and the other is situational. On the one hand, it was to assess the viability of Vietnam’s growing global sought-after products, which determines the exploitation of lands and labor during the colonization. On the other hand, it is to provide familiar dietary options for French connoisseurs who decided to be in Vietnam at the time. In the case of cheese and other dairy alternatives, the second reason seems to be the driving force for the development.

The first region of consideration is Northern Vietnam, which was once called Tonkin. About a year after the French ruled over the land (in 1884), one started to find the advertisement for cheese in the first colonial newspaper in the region, L’Avernir du Tonkin. At that time, cheese was mainly imported and sold by traders or French restaurants in French-populated cities, such as Hanoi and Hai Phong.

Excerpt from L’Avenir du Tonkin 27 novembre 1885, p5.

Excerpt from L’Avenir du Tonkin 27 November 1885, p7

It was not until 1887 that the first report of local cheese production was mentioned in the same magazine. During the L’Exposition De Hanoi, Monsier Andrier Armaning stood at his booth in Room K, surrounded by agriculture and artistry products harvested from Tonkin land. There, he presented locally produced Brie-type cheese that later won him a Bronze Medal in the non-competing category of the exhibition (SOL ET SOUS-SOL HORS CONCOURS). Little did we know about MM. Armaning and where did he get this cheese from? Nevertheless, the report told us that they were cheap and appreciated by connoisseurs. Last but not least, the production was limited as the dairy cow was not numerous in Tonkin. This information is not only useful as it helps us understand the status of “cheese” in Indochina at the time but also acts as the first historical point for cheese in Tonkin.

The limitation of dairy production in Northern Vietnam was later explained in an article named “The Future of Tonkin” in 1895 after the reporter visited the cattle farm of MM. Ange Eminente - an early Tonkin settler. Ange owned 225 cows of different breeds and managed to produce daily 150L of milk. The article mentioned that the native breed - southern yellow cattle - could give milk for the making of dairy products. However, it was rather prioritized by locals to harvest meat rather than milk. Hence, to supply an increasing demand of connoisseurs for dairy products, Ange and other settlers started to bring non-indigenous dairy cows to the land to breed or milk, with the hope of a higher level of milk production.

Historically, milk consumption in Europe only soared after the 1860s - about the time when the pasteurization process has been invented. Although the rise happens widely in the old continent, the level of consumption varies between countries. By 1900, the average French person consumed about 70 liters per year or roughly 191mL per day². As it is difficult to teach old dogs new tricks, I assumed that 5500 Europeans who lived in Tonkin at the time craved their habitual treats.³ Hence, MM. Ange and other farmers are expected to deliver daily 1100L of milk to the public. Here sounds like the scarcity of cheese is inevitable because of the limitation in dairy production.

As the limitation belonged to the supplying side, a conteener like Monsier Armaning was not a person who could bring locally-produced cheese to fulfill its demand potation. Hence, it is no surprise that 15 years later, in the same event but on a different scale, L’Exposition De Hanoi 1902 - 1903, Monsier Armaning no longer participated in his cheesy dream. Instead, a man who won the Gold Medal for Building and Public Work with his employees in the Exhibition 1887 now receives recognition for their fresh and tasty cheese production in the agriculture category. They are no random group that appeared out of nowhere. They were very active in exploring and exploiting the land intensively through careful planning and devoted man’s power. They are MM. Guillaume and the three Borel brothers (G+B), were also among the first to cultivate coffee in Tonkin in 1887.

There were no records of what kind of cheese the G+B showcased in the late winter days of Hanoi in 1902. I imagine different kinds of soft cheeses and maybe a few cakes of matured one occupied the presenting table throughout the three months of the exhibition. A hindrance to dairy production seemed to be studied and resolved by the early settlers. The evolution of a subcultural drink to fully cultured solid pieces seemed to be accomplished within the first 15 years of colonization in Tonkin.

Fast forward to modern Vietnam in the 20th century. By 2019, nearly 80% of the cheese market belongs to a France-originated Bel Vietnam, which is famous for its spreadable cheese The Laughing Cow. According to the brand website, they set foot in Vietnam in 1952 - just two years before the communist party overthrew the colonial administration. Interestingly, the brand only started to produce cheese locally by 2010⁴. If there was no discontinuation due to war or any other historical reasons, then it means that Bel had 60 years of importation to Vietnam and still covered the whole cheese market, given their product category contains only fresh types of cheese.

Personally, cheese has never been in my diet and its existence was never in the family meal as my parents cooked. Its existence rather belongs to food stalls that I would hang around after school or when I was craving snacks in between meals. While the food diet represents the cultural identity of a nation, snacks at food stalls for kid represents the sub-culture that is still emerging. Hence, it is safe to say that cheese arrived in Vietnam during the early French colonization period, however, it is only about to change the local taste landscape in the years to come.

3. Wine

Wine, specifically grape wine, is one of the few French national cuisines of pride with its history dating back long before the Indochina colonization took place. Yet I could not remember any occasions where the elders drink grape wine or any of their life stories had been told that involved the majestic drink. Here I am curious if wine ever influenced Vietnamese cuisine and tastes.

I fed my curiosity by asking if there is any wine industry in Vietnam. what is it made of? are there any differences between Vietnamese wine and other globally-known wines? if yes, how are they different from others, and to what extent? Hence, the following paragraphs summarize my thoughts and founds to answer the set of questions. Though my curiosity is now evaporated after reading the elaborated findings, yet, it is hard to talk when the glass in front is empty.

With a population of 96.65 million, Vietnam consumed 15.3 million liters of grape wine in 2020⁵. The big number here might give positive feelings about the story to come. Yet, this is only equivalent to 0.15 liter per person per year, which is 22 times lesser than average global consumption, and 300 times lesser than the French⁶. Although the exact number might deviate from the statistical survey, nevertheless, the number is indeed significantly lower than other beverages. For example, the average milk consumption in Vietnam in 2020 was 28 liters per person per year, while its beer was about 40 liters per person year⁷⁸. It looks like our white collar shirts have not been stained and we remained to be loyal with our distilled wine and lager beer before shedding tears on the drinking tables. Yet, our stomach is big enough to spare some parts for grape wine to drive the small industry forward by about 4% every year. So what kind of grape wine do we locally produce and sell here?

There are more wines from around the world than local wines when one tries to find them on the internet market. There are dozen of wine cellars across Vietnam that sell all kinds of wine of different grape varietals and different origins with price ranges from 3$ to private inquiry and one can buy in unlimited quantities if one can pay for their orders. However, when it comes to shopping locally produced wine, the situation is complicated.

In most of the famous wine countries, wine is produced where the wine grapes are grown, and each growing region has its signature grape variety. Similar to any other agriculture product, the selection of grape strains to grow depends on local climate, soil, and societal needs. Besides, the definition of wine is an alcoholic drink that is made from fermented grapes, only a few grapes shape the sensorial perception when one heard the word “wine”. Those grown to make wine is called wine-grape and the other which are grown to consume directly are called table grape and there is a clear set of characteristic difference between the two.

Geographically, Vietnam sits in the tropical climate zone of rainy seasons and high temperatures, which gives unfavorable growing conditions for wine grapes. Accordingly, most grapes grown in Vietnam are table grapes, namely Red Cardinal, Syrah, and Couderc Noir, and only 5% of the harvest are used in wine making⁹¹⁰. Local winemakers are in a difficult position where grape wine itself has never been a local product, while its sensorial characteristics have been standardized to sell based on the ingredients that they cannot have at hand. Consequently, it is understandable that locally produced wine has never reached the state of a commodity in society.

Interestingly, some local manufacturers sell locally bottled wines that are made of famous wine grapes. However, if one looks closer at the information in most of these bottles that they did not grow the grape themselves. The process here is (1) importing grape wine concentrated from around the world, (2) diluting then fermenting the concentrate, and (3) bottling to sell. It is practically wine by definition, but not by taste perceptions that are shaped by Western minds.

An honorable mention for the discussion of Vietnamese wine is an example of a lost in translation that is comprehensible to local land, yet complicated to foreign men. On the southern island of Phú Quốc, you can find a beverage named “Vang Sim Rừng”, which can be translated into Rose Myrtle Wine. Rose Myrtle is a flowering plant that bears some fruits that resemble nothing of the grape. Here, the word wine is attributed to wine-making technology used in the making of the product, rather than the meaning of “wine” mentioned earlier.

From these findings, I conclude that there is are wine industry in Vietnam and there are efforts to have locally-produced wine in this young and thirsty market. Yet, it is difficult for local production to thrive as it is shaped by foreign standards, which are based on ingredients that are locally unsusceptible. Also by looking at the numbers, grape wine has not integrated into Vietnamese beverage selections in the way that milk and beer did in the last 100 years. By standing from the present situation to reflect on the past and clash my curiosity, I dare to say that there are minor or close to zero influences of French wine on Vietnamese taste and cuisine!

4. Conclusions

From the story above, I believe that hope for cheese by French settlers to Northern Vietnam was production-wise probable in the first two decades of their arrival. However, similar to many other ailments, they were not consumed widely by the locals to be integrated into national cuisine craves across the twentieth century. Although the story of the past seems anti-climatic, the appetite for cheese has been raising slowly and steadily in recent years. If one in the far future starts to search for ‘cheese’ in Vietnamese history, it likely starts about now.

Regarding grape wine, just from an agricultural point of view as of now, it is fair to say that the local industry exists but unlikely to compete with import bottles in shaping the local appetite for local products.

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