Wine and Tea

Today on reddit I saw an article comparing wine and tea [link here]. I responded to the post with my comments on his article, but I feel I can do a bit better with some more time and thought behind it. I’ll start by covering the many things they have in common; and in staying true to my pessimistic nature I will focus more on what makes them different.

First and foremost, both tea and wine are social drinks. They’re both deep sensory experiences if you let them be, and both beverages can reflect the land or ‘terroir’ of which they came. They both exist in multitudes of quality levels, are tied to a ‘best before or around’ kind of shelf life, and require particular storage conditions for any sort of optimal long term enjoyment. Both are entrenched in religion and have influenced cultures around the world. Both inspire passionate people to share their knowledge with others. Both have connoisseurs who seek out the best which exists, and both have apathetic consumers who are content with the lowest of low qualities. Both beverages are consumed for their psychoactive effects and perhaps salubrious nature, and both are pair-able with food.

For me, one of the major differences lies in the consensus that ‘tea should be drank without food’ and ‘wine should be drank with food’ — not everyone shares these opinions of course (I certainly don’t), but I think the vast majority of people believe that although tea ‘might be ok’ with food, the role of pairing is better suited to wine.

The price differences between what is considered a ‘low quality’ wine and a ‘low quality tea’ are enormous. For the cost of a bottle of ‘low quality wine’ ($13) you could buy enough ‘low quality tea’ to last for half a year. On the other end of the spectrum, a bottle of something outrageous — in the range of $2000 (Screaming Eagle, for example) is an hour or two of enjoyment with friends. From my exposure so far, tea’s equivalent to ‘an hour or two of luxurious enjoyment’ has been $90. That was a harvest of a single 500 year old bush of Phoenix Oolong Ba Jian ‘8 Immortals’ in a ‘King Grade’.

Another vast difference is the fact that wine in most cases is simply poured from a bottle. There is some technique involved in opening a tricky old bottle of wine, getting it off the sediment, not destroying the cork and having it fall inside, etc. Tea has to be brewed though, and although it’s definitely not rocket science, temperature, ratio, and infusion time all play significant factors which if not regulated can turn the best tea leaves in the world to something rather unremarkable.

It’s interesting to note what connoisseurs care about in their drinking vessels for both beverages — you don’t often see wine drinkers imbibing anything noteworthy from a clay tumbler, and you don’t often see a serious tea establishment serving tea in crystal glasses (although the latter may be slowly catching on). Both materials and shapes have merit — clay affects flavour, generally for the better. It also plays into teas aesthetic of being ‘oriental’ and is arguably more simple or ‘natural’ than the sterile look of crystal. The shape and size of wine glasses is paramount to getting the most out of a wines aroma. In the future I would to see a drinking culture created of clay tea ware designed in the shape of wine glasses — stemmed or not, to get the best of both worlds.

This is the most controversial thing I’ll say in this article: Wine emphasizes varietal and place, tea emphasizes technique. In both beverages all 3 aspects are important but again we’re talking about ’emphasis’. When drinking a wine like Cotes de Nuit villages you are drinking a Burgundy first and foremost, the fact that it’s Pinot Noir is secondary to that. When drinking a green tea like Long Jing, the fact you are drinking ‘Long Jing’ is more important than it coming from a renowned area like Xi Hu or less specifically Hangzhou. Long Jing is a style of pan fried green tea and Burgundian wine is usually a ‘classic expression’ of terroir driven Pinot Noir. In the future it’s unlikely that in the production of Cote des Nuits villages, Pinot Noir will ever be scrapped in favour of something else; but the tea varietal which makes Long Jing has changed and will likely continue to keep changing over time. What makes a ‘Long Jing’ a ‘Long Jing’ is an emphasis on specific production techniques; location and varietal are secondary. Long Jing at its fundamentals is something which can be replicated anywhere in the world if the technique is there. The same cannot (should not?) be said about Burgundy because the emphasis of ‘Burgundy’ is on its sense of place not necessarily the style of wine.

In tea there is also a shameless amount of counterfeits and misinformation. While I am not saying that this does not happen with wine, in the developed world I can’t imagine there are too many fakes floating around (yes I know about Sour Grapes). I think governments and trading agencies have a lot more accountability to their investors tied to the ‘big money’ in wine. There is also a great deal of information put out in English about very specific aspects in wine, which is unfortunately lacking in the tea world.

Both tea and wine have a ‘peak’ — a point in their life which they will taste the best. For wine it’s not necessarily as old as possible, and with tea it’s not necessarily as young as possible. There is a certain charm about drinking a fresh green tea a month after it has been picked — the flavours are vibrant and fresh but they will only deteriorate as time goes on. On the other hand there are examples of Sheng Pu’Erh tea which really start to hit their stride 20 years after they’re made. There are wines which are intended to be consumed as soon as possible after purchasing the bottle, and others which should be kept hidden away in a cellar for decades. Knowing which is which in both fields is an important aspect of their enjoyment.

Wine intoxicates the mind and impairs judgement, it allows one to loosen up and enjoy themselves more. Tea improves focus, prevents drowsiness, hydrates, and helps to maintain a cooler internal body temperature. Overall tea seems to be quite a healthy addition to life. Not to bash wine in this regard, but I don’t think they’re very comparable.