Drinking wine in the tropics is not a favoured pursuit by those who believe the climate is better suited to gin and tonics once the sun has gone down and who favour beer during the hot and sticky daylight hours. Mrs R and I have just returned from a pensioners' trip to Vietnam —where the climate is decidedly tropical—but we did our best, in the interests of our great industry, to have a wine or two when it was appropriate, I suppose that's a polite way of saying that we weren't on the suds and G & Ts all of the time. The wine lists in Vietnam are very French and Australian-centric. Australian wines compete almost exclusively with French wines on most half-decent restaurant wine lists. Apparently import duty on wine is relatively horrendous and therefore wine, by Vietnamese standards, is quite expensive. Naturally, the prevailing weather lends itself to white wines and we enjoyed the occasional bottle of crisp, cold Australian Riesling with our Pho, Cao Lau and Bahn Koi. However, it was difficult to remain loyal, as the Frogs seem to have the Aussies beaten in the price stakes. Good Sancerres, Rhones and even Champagnes were often a tad cheaper than Australian wines. Perhaps the former Indochina colonists have done a tariff deal. We did, however, find one gem—a tiny restaurant in the back streets of Hue somewhere, which sold only Australian wine and at very reasonable prices. We enjoyed a d'Arenberg Stump Jump Sauvignon Blanc there with our cold Vietnamese spring rolls (between numerous bottles, on my part, of the delicious local LaRue beer).
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