Before I was introduced to Hung Thinh Wine (“Ruou Vang Hung Thinh”) in September 2008, I loved having a few drinks with my friends, family, and business associates, but we drank mostly beer, bottled or on tap, or Vietnamese, even light beer made at home. which is as light as running water.

My closest friends are all heavy drinkers, where “more is less” is the motto for them, and it’s not uncommon for each one of us to finish half a box (12 cans of 330 ml) in a single and easy drinking session after a normal day at work!

That’s not to mention special occasions like Christmas, Tet (Vietnamese Lunar New Year), weddings, birthdays, etc. or even the traditional annual Passaway Day Remembrance parties, where we could drink non-stop literally all day, from dawn to midnight, through the adrenaline rush “dzo”, which means “health” in Vietnamese.

The big difference is that a “dzo” also means that you have to empty your glass in one goes, regardless of the size of your glass. The problem is that sometimes we use the 500 ml glasses, especially when we drink draft beer. That makes a “dzo” half a liter and two simple “dzo” a liter of beer for the stomach. Guess how many “dzo” we get during a normal after-hours drinking session?

Things get even worse when everyone believes that the more “dzo”, the better we can demonstrate our “manhood”, and the more your friends will admire you! No one is sure how much “manliness” you can display through 30 or more “dzo, dzo”s, but your liver, stomach, and brain surely know about the load they take on every night—every night!

Even children know that our liver works like a filter to purify the intoxicants in our food and drinks before they reach our blood. And it takes time for the liver to do its good work.

So if we drink a red wine very slowly, we really enjoy its taste and flavor, especially with some delicious foods, then the liver can have enough time to burn most of the alcohol we take. The little alcohol that remains can only make us barely aroused in a very mild way. Such a style of moderate drinking would make us more dynamic and more entertaining while making sure that we will not completely become an “alcoholic animal”.

By contrast, the “dzo, dzo” in the pile of Heineken or Tiger boxes just sends us into a state of giddiness, along with headache, stomach ache, and the ultimate loss of control. That’s because the liver is overworked while consuming such a large amount of beer in such a long period of time. So more and more alcohol escapes into our blood, then into our brain. It makes us think slower and act slower.

When it reaches .1 in our blood, our ability to rationalize and react is drastically reduced. So it becomes difficult for us to walk properly, and leave driving alone. That’s why the law of most states in the US allows for driver’s license suspension if someone is caught with .08 or more alcohol in their blood while driving, no matter how “alert” they may be. be that person Vietnamese law is also severe, but there is still a problem when it comes to enforcing the law.

The problem is that the Vietnamese “culture” of drinking makes each gang compete in “dzo, dzo” to see who… would collapse last, equivalent to the… strongest male in the gang (???). Ever since I was introduced to wine and its goodness by joining “Ruou Vang Hung Thinh” as their partner, I have always given up and accepted the “worst loser” in the gang since the beginning of every “dzo, dzo” meeting. those piles of empty beer bottles.

Dr. Triet, the initial owner of “Ruou Vang Hung Thinh” as well as one of the most renowned wine experts in the country, has taught me that we drink because we would love to enjoy the flavor and taste of wine. so as not to beat us to death. There is no use “dzo, dzo” without knowing exactly what we do “dzo”, without distinguishing any taste or taste, except the bitter taste! And it gets worse the next day, when we wake up with a headache, stomach ache, and a constant state of dizziness throughout the day!

Fortunately, the common consumption trend in the US, as well as in other parts of the world, including Vietnam, has gradually shifted from beer and liquor to wine. Even better, Californian, Australian and Chilean wines are getting better and better, now arguably of comparable quality to French wines.

That is a very encouraging sign because wine, in moderate consumption, is simply an excellent drink, tasty but delicate, complex but balanced, and it has undeniable and medically proven positive effects for the cardiovascular system.

Wine, in moderate consumption, that is, no more than 03 cups of 04 ounces for men and 02 cups for women daily, helps protect our heart and blood vessels. Famed television reporter and correspondent Morley Safer, owner of the popular 60-Minutes show on CBS, observed what he called “the French paradox” while on summer vacation in the Pyrenees, France, in 1991.

He realized that the majority of the local population raise livestock such as chickens and ducks for a living and produce that notorious “foie gras”, so their daily diet is also full of fat and then cholesterol.

Again, even children know that such fat consumption would create serious cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks and all kinds of strokes.

With further observations, Morley Safer also realized that the French in general consume a lot of butter, whole milk, cheese, pâté, bacon, ham, etc. The amount of fat they absorb into their body is about three times that of the average American. So Morley Safer was so astounded by the fact that the percentage of French people dying from cardiovascular disease, including stroke, was only a third of that of Americans. Hence, “the French paradox”!

As one of the most innovative reporters of his time, Morley Safer has conducted extensive research to discover what is behind this “French paradox.” After several consultations with various nutritionists, cardiovascular doctors, and even sociologists, as well as collecting dietary data from French and Americans, he has provided a startling report on one of his 60-minute shows in November 1991 that, except for a few secondary reasons, such as the While the French tend to be more outdoorsy and spend less time in front of the television than Americans, there is a fundamental reason why the French regularly drink wine, mainly red wine.

Since then, many other researchers from institutes like Harvard University or John Hopkins University, etc. They have also carried out other investigations that have resulted in verifying the relationship between regular and moderate consumption of red wine and a good cardiovascular system. For example, it has been shown that people who regularly drink about 6 glasses of red wine a week can reduce the chance of having a heart attack by at least 25%, and the chance of having a stroke by at least 34% compared to people with a similar lifestyle but not drinking red wine.

The researchers also discovered that ingredients like phenolic compounds, flavonoids, tannins, etc. they are also strong antioxidants that help fight cell aging.

During the second 04-day International Conference in Southern California in February 2004 on the relationship between wine and cardiovascular health, with the participation of more than 150 physicians and researchers from around the world, a common statement was issued. In other words: “Doctors better start communicating to the public that moderate and regular consumption of red wine can bring great health benefits.”

Now, let’s talk about Vietnam, even beer is still dominating “masculinity”, there have been more and more people who start to realize the health benefits of wine and gradually switch to drinking wine instead of beer or liquor. This trend, although slow, is irreversible and occurs through the annual increase in sales volumes of most wine companies in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese are becoming wealthier and more health conscious. And the wealthier and more conscientious people are, the faster they will go from excessive beer consumption to moderate wine consumption.

So it won’t be long until the day we see Vietnamese gentlemen still vying for “manhood” through those “dzo, dzo” blood pressure boosters, but around bottles of this tasty medicine: red wine!