Nguyen Tien Thinh - the best French wine 'artist' in Vietnam

(Baonghean) - At the end of 2015, when I met wine service expert Nguyen Tien Thinh to conduct an interview for Tet newspaper, I longed to meet him again and write more about him. Not simply because he is a famous son of Nghe An, but I was really attracted by the way he loves his profession... tasting and smelling wine. I know, there are many confidences and secrets that he has not been able to tell, knowing that he - is the one who inspires me, and possibly, many others, especially young people, on the threshold of choosing a career, starting a business...

VLuckily, I got to meet him again. Even though he was extremely busy, he still spent the afternoon sharing with me about his nostalgia and gratitude for his homeland, his childhood memories, and his path to a profession that is still too unfamiliar to most Vietnamese people.

Before telling me about… wine, about the endless vineyards in Italy and France that stretch out in his dreams, about the thousands of years of history of wine, a history that makes Europeans proud because it is associated with agriculture as well as their culinary delights that have been elevated to the level of art, Nguyen Tien Thinh told me about the white salt fields of his hometown.

The fields where he had shed so much sweat and tears. Later, he said, when he stood on the vast green fields or the fragrant, sweet taste of ripe grapes in a foreign land, he thought of the dazzling white fields under the summer sun. The fields where the small, mushroom-like Thinh had known to go with his parents to the sand, pushing a wheelbarrow.

The sound of rolling carts is like the diligence and hard work passed down from generation to generation of the people of Quynh Di, Hoang Mai coastal area. “You know, back then, what I craved the most was an ice cream bar. I thought of the cool taste melting in my mouth, chasing away my thirst and fatigue, but even an ice cream bar is sometimes just a dream” - Thinh talked about his difficult childhood, then suddenly woke up: “It’s strange, I was born from the smell of fish sauce, the smell of salt, and then chose to stop at… the smell of wine”.

Nguyen Tien Thinh visits a vineyard in Italy. Photo: NVCC

Born in 1978, Nguyen Tien Thinh is the eldest of three children. His father is a war invalid and his mother is a farmer.

With a poor family and many hungry days, Nguyen Tien Thinh learned to work early to help his parents. In addition to farming rice and salt, when he grew up, Thinh was attached to the cart and made friends with the cow. From 2 or 3 am, the boy over 10 years old got up, worked hard to drive the cart to get sand to sell, went to the cliff to buy stones to sell, or went to collect firewood around the forest. He was also familiar with the job of cutting tobacco, picking sophora flowers to earn a little extra money to cover his living expenses...

Then, Thinh became a phenomenon in the poor countryside when he was one of the first few students to pass the entrance exam to Hanoi University of Foreign Languages. “It seems like there was some miraculous arrangement of fate for me to become a student of French. Later, I realized that the paths we take in life are all built from small bricks, not wasting any. As many people say, I switched to another major, skipping the Foreign Language major, no. It led me to the present!”

Recalling his fateful encounter with French, Nguyen Tien Thinh still laughs with interest: “That was when I was in 6th grade, a cousin who studied at the University of Foreign Languages ​​came back to her hometown during the summer and was excited to open a small class to teach a few children from the countryside. She could not have imagined that her love for French and France would permeate the naive boy that was me at that time.”

Then, the boy Thinh, who had dreamed of becoming a tour guide (because he thought that this job would take him to many places, to many beautiful landscapes), while sitting and driving an ox cart to collect firewood, sand, etc., began to dream of a faraway land - France.

After passing the university entrance exam, Thinh had to work part-time to maintain his studies. And even after graduating from university, he was still struggling with the idea of ​​staying in Hanoi, applying for any job, as long as he did not have to ask his parents for money anymore because when he returned to his hometown, Thinh could not find a job. Those were the difficult days for Thinh. He poured beer for customers in a beer house, delivered goods to businesses, then applied for a job as an assistant at a motorbike shop... It seemed like he had to put his Foreign Language degree on hold forever.

Thinh said that it was the perseverance and hard work of the Nghe people that had been passed down for generations that kept him from getting discouraged. After that, Thinh was lucky enough to get a job as a waiter at the Sofitel Metropole hotel, but then there was a huge staff reduction program and he was not allowed to stay.

However, the months of working here gave the "country" guy many lessons and understanding. Quietly working, quietly observing, quietly learning and absorbing, then, after 2 years, in 2004, Thinh was accepted to work at Hilton Hanoi Opera Hotel. He was trained in culinary arts, learned about wine, and because he was hard-working, diligent, and had French, he was chosen to take a trip to France. That trip was a milestone, a great turning point in his life when he stood on the vineyards, visited hundreds of years old wine cellars...

The young man, who was accustomed to the salty taste of the salt fields, pondered a bit. Farmers, like the people of his hometown, work hard all their lives in the vineyards or the barley fields. They work, they love the land and they are creative. They make wine, the sweet and intoxicating taste, which is no longer just a drink but has become a culinary culture. Why is wine considered a "gift from God" to mankind? Why do people say that drinking wine requires using all five senses? Why are there people who are so sophisticated and professional that they can distinguish the type of wine, the alcohol content, and even know which region and season the wine comes from?

Those questions inspired the young man from Nghe An. It started with self-study, finding answers, and then becoming passionate. That was around 2008. At that time, the profession of serving wine, also known as the profession of tasting and smelling wine (Sommelier) was not known to many people in Vietnam.

Nguyen Tien Thinh said, he started with the thought “Why can others do it but I can’t?” and then, he was truly conquered by the cultural charm of serving wine. This profession is not popular in Vietnam, so learning the profession was even more difficult for him. “But it doesn’t matter, when I start to love it.

Love and nurturing passions have helped me go all the way with my career. I love it so much that I forget that it is my career, that I am blending, enjoying, speculating, pursuing, and conquering it. Tasting and smelling wine? No, I am enjoying a symphony. Close your eyes, can you feel the sourness of grape juice, the astringency of grape skin, the strong taste of yeast, the lingering taste of oak barrels… You see the blue sky before your eyes, you see the endless fields, you see the rising smoke, you see the lemon flowers giving off their fragrance…

Nguyen Tien Thinh confessed that the more he delved into it, the more he couldn’t stop. And he realized that it wasn’t just because he was eager to conquer it, but also because it contained endless discoveries. Unlike many other drinks, wine has its own “class”, requiring sophistication and emotion.

“It is true that you have to stretch your five senses to understand wine, to enjoy the differences. To know that anyone can become an artist in their work or simply in eating and drinking.” And that feeling is what lasts forever. Life will be so rich and interesting when we always experience the feelings, the freshness and let our imagination soar…

Certificate of First Prize French Wine Server 2015.

Wine service expert, the professional “title” that Nguyen Tien Thinh strives to achieve, has also put in a lot of effort. He always remembers and is grateful for his small, poor hometown. Remembers his difficult childhood. Remembers his dream on the ox cart. Remembers his first French lesson, so that later, thanks to knowing French, he could stand on the vineyards in France.

He said, without all those hardships and hardships, how could he have the sweetness now? How could he have the perseverance and confidence to step into and commit to life and all the challenges and attractions ahead.

“And young people, please start with perseverance and passion, success will come if you love your job, like a musician loves his guitar, like a painter loves his brush. Paint your dream with the ladder of learning every day” - Nguyen Tien Thinh shared when I asked him if he wanted to tell young people who were in the same situation as him in the years 2000 - 2002.

Nguyen Tien Thinh is now a wine expert at Da Loc Company. He is currently preparing for the Sommelier training group at this year's competition for wine servers and has been invited to be a judge at the regional wine competition in Hong Kong. He is one of the few Vietnamese who have achieved high titles in international wine service competitions: Second prize in the Portuguese wine competition in Macao 2013; First prize in the "Best Vietnamese Sommelier Competition 2015"; Third prize in the "Best Southeast Asia + Taiwan Sommelier Competition 2015" in Bangkok, Thailand.

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