Sông Cái
Few people in the world is as intensely animated and passionate about rice fermentation as Daniel Nguyen, an American-born ethnobotanist singlehandedly preserving Vietnamese rice wine traditions and sharing them around the globe.
With a scientific and environmental conservation background, Daniel isn’t exactly in the world of winemaking: instead dedicating himself to understanding traditional Vietnamese winemaking techniques across its 54 ethnic groups.
Sông Cái wines are distinctive and compelling glances into hyperregional winemaking in Vietnam, whilst maintaining as minimal intervention as possible.
Winemaker: Daniel Hoai Nguyễn
Established: 2018
Location: Hà Nội
Farming Method: Regenerative
Size: 4,000 bottles p/a
Growers:50% Purple Sticky Rice (nếp cẩm), 50% Yellow Flower Sticky Rice (nếp cái hoa vàng)
Daniel with Lý Lở Mẩy, a Red Dao medicine woman, in Vietnam’s highlands
California-born Daniel Nguyen was working for Oxfam America when he first travelled to Vietnam, advising on sustainable development in the Mekong Delta. His experience in agricultural supply chains and land allocation policies identified an opportunity to save increasingly-scarce Vietnamese flora and indigenous grains, founding Sông Cái in 2019.
During his time in the Central and Northern Highlands among minority tribes, Daniel learnt how to forage for botanicals, cook remote village foods, and ferment local alcohols. His ethnobotanist background already understood the concept of terroir, botany, and the role of the individual in hyperregional environments, and thus transitioning to alcohol was a logical step to add value to these botanicals.
With a new love for Vietnam, Daniel moved to Hanoi for just 5% of his income in the US, dedicating his time to collecting and identifying local corn varieties that were distilled into whisky, herbs that were mashed into bitter tonics, and indigenous yeasts strains that were suitable for fermentation.
Five years later, Daniel has established a supply chain that directly supports farmers and minority communities in Vietnam’s highlands: Premium prices are offered for low-yielding, indigenous rice varieties, which are made into wines shared with the world.
Sông Cái, meaning “Mother River” is dedicated to the pure waters that flow through the highlands, bringing beauty and bounty to Vietnam and the world. The term pays homage to the deep reverence that rural agricultural communities have for bodies of waters as givers of life.
The team’s headquarters on the outskirts of Hanoi is a set of moving parts and peek into a scientist’s mind: a temperature-unregulated warehouse used for aging wines and spirits in the humid Hanoi summers; a fermentation room with yeast and mould covering the walls, often reaching 40°C; and a library-eqsue laboratory full of petri dishes with native microbes, test tubes with elusive yeasts, jars of ferments, and mysterious bottles of alcohol. There are refridgerators stocked with homemade sodas, fermenting fish sauces, and soy products, and freezers that house homemade glutinous corn icecream (Daniel wanted to become an icecream maker before starting Sông Cái).
With two full-time foragers, the team work with ethnic groups around Hanoi to continue to find, identify, preserve, and find a use for native Vietnamese botanicals. In his lab, Daniel used his biological engineering background to mix together yeast cakes from isolate indigenous yeast strains found on heirloom produce - each picked for their fermentation strength, aromas, wine texture, and complexity.
Growers
Điện Biên Province
Dry-Grown Purple Sticky Rice
Hải Dương Province
Flood-Grown Yellow Flower Sticky Rice
Wines
Bong Bóng Sparkling
100% Yellow Flower Sticky Rice (Nếp Cái Hoa Vàng), prized for its aromatic qualities, from flooded rice paddies on the Red River Delta. Meaning ‘bubbly’, a traditional method sparkling made from a perpetual blend of wines aged up to 4 years in oak and traditional Vietnamese clay amphora (Chum Rượu).
Tung Tóe Pet Nat 2024
100% Purple Sticky Rice (Nếp Cẩm), a rare variety with high anthocyanin content, from dry rice paddies in Điện Biên province. Meaning ‘Eruption’, a pet-nat fermented for 4-5 days in traditional Vietnamese clay amphora (Chum Rượu) before bottling
Cam Purple Sweet Rice Wine 2024
Made from the first drippings of 7kg fermenting purple sticky rice (Nếp Cẩm) per bottle. Initially 600g of residual sugar per litre, fermented over 12 months in an uncontrolled cellar that slightly madeirises the wine in the Hanoi summer heat.
Khà Yellow Rice Wine
A traditional Vietnamese Rice Wine (Rượu Cái) made using both Yellow Flower Sticky Rice and Purple Sticky Rice, chosen for their amylose content. Fermented over 45 days. Matured with gross lees for at least 18 months in an uncontrolled solera system cellar, with weekly batonnage.
Aromatized Rice Wine
Rice wine made with Yellow Flower Sticky Rice (Nếp Cái Hoa Vàng) polished “Xát Dối” style, halfway between brown and white rice. 12 different native medicinal botanicals were added to aromatize the wine, including ginseng and ginger. Matured for 6 months minimum in traditional Vietnamese clay amphora (Chum Rượu) before bottling.
Mẩy Amaro Bitters
An amaro bitters made in partnership with Lý Lở Mẩy, a Red Dao medicine woman. The recipe is based on traditional Red Dao herbal medicinal liqueur, using over 12 wild forest botanicals from roots, bark, leaves, and dried seeds.