Winecast 2. Follow Up 2. Vocab, flavors and other cultural issues with wine

One of the things that I didn't talk about in the winecast 2, or rather talked about and cut, was why it is important to me to understand local flavors, in this case, South East Asian fruits...
When I try and talk about many common flavors in wine such as blackberry, blueberry, raspberry and strawberry in China, or even in Hong Kong to an extent (black currant), I come up against 3 communication barriers and a few cultural ones.
First of all, some flavors are hard to come by in China (and expensive) and as a result, it is not uncommon that I find myself talking with someone who has never had a blueberry. Secondly, if they have, they may not know the English word for blueberry, and thirdly, I don't know Mandarin for blueberry. This makes it very difficult for me to talk about wine flavors in the way I am used to doing. But who's responsibility is it to learn how to communicate when talking about wine in a culture where French and English wine speak means nothing? For me, the obvious answer is that the western world needs to make the effort and not just on vocabulary, but also on understanding local food and beverage cultural experiences.
The first reason stems from why I love drinking wine, and why I think many others do as well, which is the ability of familiar smells and flavors in wine to transport us to another place or time. I like to think about the food critic from the movie 'Ratatouille', Anton Ego. When he takes his first bite of Ratatouille Anton Ego is immediately brought back to a rich and vivid childhood memory and is completely transformed and rejuvenated by that experience. I can think of a wine I had recently in which I tasted Sea Salt and was teleported 5 years back to a beach in California where I watched Elephant seals. I hate elephant seals! They are noisy and smell terrible, (not to mention that day was cold and windy) but I love that this wine had the ability to bring me from the other side of the world, a tradeshow in China, back to California.
While I get excited when I find someone who has eaten blueberry before in China and can pick it out of a wine, finding that flavor for them seems so matter of fact. If we make an effort to understand the flavors that are important to cultures like China that are becoming excited about wine, maybe they will begin to 'experience' wine in a similar way with recognition of flavors like lychee, asian pear and purple mangosteen. (Hypocritically I do not know the Mandarin names for any of these fruits...yet)
Beyond understanding unique cultural flavors, comes understanding those cultures. I look at China and say, "How are 80% of wine sales in reds when Chinese food is full of rich and heavy spices"?! "Why don't they drink Sauvignon Blanc in SiChuan"? The first thing I try and remember when I these questions is my first experience with a true SiChuan meal where I thought I was going to pass out after my first bite of chicken baked with "mildly" spicy chicken. Instinctively I reached for my glass of cold ice water to put out the fire only to realize that all I had to drink was hot chrysanthemum tea! There was no cold water to drink in this area, it wouldn't be safe for me to drink, and the Chinese believe strongly that drinking hot liquids is healthy for you. Certainly there was no ice for drinking; there never had been. My other memorable experiences with food/drink pairing all involve 165 proof "Bai Jiu" which burns as badly as SiChuan food with hot tea and ensures that you will get to taste your meal a second time that night.
While of course it is my wish that China would drink more wine with food, and try more white wine with food, these wishes are based on my personal palate and preferences (based on my cultural upbringing). Before we try and push western trends onto a several thousand year old culture, or other cultures, it is important for us to try things their way as well and to gain a better understanding of their experiences with drink and food.
So, what does this mean? If you want to understand the Chinese wine palate, you have to experience the Chinese Palate. Eat Sichuan food with hot Tea, drink Bai Jiu, put coke and sprite in your wines, put ice cubes in your wine. Say "gan bei" (dry cup) and Chug a glass of wine. Try everything once before you judge it, and instead of judging it (and rejecting it or trying to change it), try and understand it and accept it. You will find drinking and talking about wine much more enriching in whatever new culture you choose and you will find it easier to share the things you love about your own culture as well. Rob.