You can bet not a whole lot of grapes grow in Thailand and south-east Asia but the Thai are resourceful people and if they want wine, they’ll have wine. That is where sato comes in.
It’s been made for centuries by Thailand’s northern rice growers. Although called wine, it’s really a lot closer to beer. It’s traditionally brewed in clay jugs with sticky rice, sugar, yeast, water and a starter culture to get the process started.
The steamed rice is mixed with the starter culture and kept in a large tank for three days until the starch in the rice starts to turn into sugar. That’s when the water is added. After another week the rice wine is filtered and drank almost immediately. Home-made rice wine should be drank with caution as the brew has a very short shelf-life and if made improperly can cause ergot poisoning which is not what you want while on holidays in Thailand.
That begin said, one of the biggest joys of travelling, at least for me, is tasting what comes from the region and if that means home-brewed sato then count me in. After all, when you buy flights to Thailand isn’t that your direct ticket to experiencing the culture?
You can find wine made from rice all over Asia including China, where it’s called choujiu.
What is your favourite part about travelling? Have you ever tried rice wine? How would you describe the flavour?
