 $4,000 at the restaurant and $1,000 if you could buy it straight from the source. This is my very first time in a wine shop, no cap. All right, I'm not going to lie. A nice bottle of wine always felt inaccessible to me. I imagine it was for people like this and this, but with LeBron James promoting it as part of a healthy lifestyle, how can we not look into it? So we sit down with wine expert David Choi from Magna Carta Sellers and we'll talk about everything from cheap versus expensive, red versus white, discuss why wine is the future and also how Asians can be respected in an industry rooted in Europe. If you like wine or want to learn something about it, then hit that like button right now. Let's go. All right, we are sitting down with the winery owner from Magna Carta Sellers, David Choi. Today, you are going to be explaining to us why Asians should drink more wine. You're going to be breaking down everything about wine, which is great because I'm not going to lie. My knowledge base is like a zero out of 10. Well, I'm taking you guys from high school straight to the pros. You're going to be in the NBA once we finish today. We have two different types of cuisines here. We have Korean food from Boca right here, which is going to be your more pungent, more flavorful, little bit spicier foods. And then on our left side, we got Joe's Ginger, Shanghai Knees food, which is obviously a lot lighter. We're going to make sure everything complements each other. We're looking for the perfect pairing between wine and food, between the flavors, savory, sweet, richness, opulence. We're going to see it all. So we are going to learn why Asians should drink more wine. We're going to be able to break down what are different wines and we're going to learn how wines pair with different foods. And we're going to do it in a way that it's not too technical. It's in everyday terms what we live in in this world. Yo, I've been wanting to get into wine because I know that a lot of NBA players, LeBron, Chris Paul, Carmelo, they're super duper into wine, like 10 out of 10 level. So I figure if they're out of 10 out of 10, I could at least be at a three. All right, you guys, before we get into some pairings, I got some super basic questions for you, David. What is wine? Wine is a fermented grape that is processed through, that turns into alcohol that you can drink and consume. Okay, but these grapes are not the grapes from the grocery store or are they? They are similar to those ones that you purchase and you want the same flavors, but they're different grapes. These are wine making grapes. When it comes to being Asian and we have like rice wines and stuff, is that truly wine or does it have to have grapes? So you could call it a wine, but it's called a rice wine, right? So wine is generally produced out of grapes and what we have here is red wines, white wines, sparkling wines, but broken down a little bit more. You guys probably know grape types, Cabernet, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, but what we have is the regions where they're from. We have Champagne. Grapes have to be from Champagne, France for it to be called Champagne or it's called sparkling wine. Burgundy, simplest term, Burgundy. Red Burgundy is Pinot Noir grapes. White Burgundy is going to be Chardonnay. And correct me if I'm wrong. Burgundy is a place. Burgundy is a place in France. Okay. So then we have Saint-Saire. So broken down, Saint-Saire produces Sauvignon Blanc grapes. Okay, it's starting to get over my head, but let's power through it. We got to taste it. We got to do our preparing. We do have a Grand Cru Champagne from Jacques Delos, one of the great producers. I think he's the Lebron James of Champagne right now, the greatest artist, seafood always goes well with Champagne and we have a chicken dumpling. You don't want anything that'll overpower what you're eating, right? So like if something's a little lighter like seafood doesn't have that full flavor, texture, fatness that you have like in a steak or beef. How does somebody that is Asian end up a master wine maker and wine expert? Typically we're thinking a European person for sure. Well, it does take a lot of years and you know there's a lot of education that goes behind it, but for me it's all started in a wine store. I was tasting hundreds of wines every week and really that defined my palate. I took a passion into Bordeaux and that's sort of by a background in wines and that's why Magna Carta is a you know left bank Bordeaux blend. It's been a lot of time in France. Six, seven times a year, every year visiting the vineyards, meeting the farmers, the winemakers, really learning the techniques and styles. We just had to let the people know your credentials, that's all. All right DC, so with the food and the wine pairing, do you drink it first or eat first and then drink? I would always say we got a toast first and celebrate life, right? Okay, right. Is there a word to say cheers? I just drink. I haven't drank a lot of champagne in my life, but that's the best champagne I've ever had. Wow. So as far as champagne, I don't have to swirl it like I see people do with red wine. You can't, I mean you can actually get into it. You don't really see a lot of wine you know in Korea anyway. Wine is super expensive just because of the taxes to bring in the wines, especially from America. There's no wine to be produced in Korea. Growing up, being Korean and obviously soju is like super, super popular now. Everybody's drinking it. Is there some sense when you see all your Korean friends drinking soju? You're like guys try the wine man. If you look at the different things that we have on the table, sake and soju just wouldn't pair with a lot of these things like as well as wine. Got some chicken dumplings here. I took a bite of the dumplings. I'm going to take a sip of the champagne. This is an expensive ball of champagne. This is not your $12 Andres from the grocery store. This is the highest. $650. Bro, that is more expensive than Asa Spades. We're talking about Jay-Z's wine. How do I describe how much better this is than Andres's Spamoni? So first thing off, it's not as sweet. Andres uses, it's a little bit sweeter in taste profile. This you get some apple notes for me. It's a you know a creamy texture that you would get. It goes really well with that chicken dumpling. It enhanced the flavor. It almost was like a salt of the mouth. Alright, moving on to our next pairing. We have our first red wine and it is your wine, Magna Carta. Magna Carta. Let's check it out man. Yeah. So Magna Carta is Cabernet based. You guys know Cabernet grapes? I do not know. Cabernet, by the way, is a breed of grape. It is. Broken down a little bit more technically for you guys. This has Cab Merlot, Cab Franck, and Petit Fredot in it. So it's a mix. Is that usual? That's a Bordeaux blend. So Bordeaux blends generally have five grapes including Malbec. This is for this year. We didn't use any Malbec in it. The grapes come from vineyards and partners that I work with in Napa Valley. And you did not name this after Magna Carta Jay-Z's album? I did not. But we can call it the Holy Grail. Most people know that like red wine kind of goes with beef or steak. Your wine pairs well with Korean Calbee. It does. The fatness in the short rib goes really well with the richness in the Cabernet. For this one we're gonna take a bite of the Calbee short rib prior to drinking your Magna Carta wine. Always give it a little spin, a little wrist action there. They're very nice. So generally you don't want anything with like Harvey that has super high tannins in it. Which means Cabernet has a lot of tannins, which is that dryness that you feel. You know, older the wines, the tannins definitely soften up which you know makes it a great pairing with Korean barbecue, you know, steaks. It's very versatile at this age. It's $100. I think this complements the flavor a lot better. First time you've seen this. We've eaten a lot of Chinese food but we've never had wine with it. What can people expect man? So rich. I mean you guys just taste it right? Dark fruit flavors. I felt the fruit. The fruit is in there deep. Why do you think all these athletes are drinking wine now? The art form behind this really to see like a Duane Wade create his own wine. You know once you get into wine it's addicting. You guys are into sneakers right? Art is another one of those because it's a it's a limited supply. You know once you drink it that comes off the market. All right so for our next pairing we have a white wine with our pork dumplings. We have Shaolongbaos and then we have the Shenzhen Baos. Why the sans-sair? It always goes well with pork. It's a great filling. The acidity in the sans-sair, samyang blanc always goes well with that. I'm a little bit of a fan of like maybe wetting the mouth with the wine prior. Coating? Yes. That's hey man I'm already developing my wine styles. Little minerality. You know that's the profile of a sans-sair. Yeah I did totally like wash that my palate down right there. It kind of helped break down the fat. Especially with the Shaolongbaos because that gelatin is pretty caloric. This is the first time I'm doing these pairings as well. So it's always a learning process in wine and you're always trying to you know find that great pairing. This is a Shenzhen Bao. This is a more pan-fried Bao with a similar juice in the middle. I mean for me I thought the other pairing was a little bit better. I thought possibly this could actually pair with a red one. You know it has a little bit more richness to it. If you're eating Shaolongbaos, XLB's, soup dumplings, get the sans-sair. All right we got the spam kimchi fried rice from Boca and we're gonna be pairing this with the Chardonnay. Chardonnay is very good with savory foods right? So it actually does wash it down and pairs really well with spam. For our fifth wine on this Asian food pairing we've got a very trendy wine in the past five years, rosé. Rosé is basically you know you leave the grape skins in you know when you're pressing leaves it in a little bit gives it that that hint of pinkish color in there and then those grape skins are taken out. It's basically a white wine with some red wine in it. Rosé. And you're saying we're pairing this with the Korean fried chicken drumsticks and wings. Paya city which cuts through a lot of the fat. Rosé and Korean fried chicken. The popularity and rosé has grown over the last you know 10 years. It's great to have on a summer day chill it's great with food as well. I remember Jay-Z talking about rosé 10 years ago. No he sets trends so you know whatever he says. He made us all wear button-ups. I wore a button-up back then. The rosé that your heaven doesn't overtake the chicken doesn't even know there's a lot of fat skin there's layers in it. It cuts through clean. All right you guys our sixth and final wine for our Asian food pairing. The one and only Chateau Mutant Rosé Child. Is it from the Rosé Child family? It's the Rosé Child family. Yo! Shout out to Jay Electronica. The Illuminati. Yo this is the most expensive wine $1,000 at the restaurant. Oh at a restaurant? Oh this would be about $4,000. $4,000 at the restaurant and $1,000 if you could buy it straight from the source. What can we expect from this? This is a Bordeaux blend. So they use predominantly calf. There's a ton of cob frog and merlot in this as well. Why is it important to get air in there? Is it to mix it up? What does it do? Because you want to get the aromatics and you want to be able to get that flavor to open up in the wine. I'm not going to like pretend like I can break it down to the most technical level but I can tell you I can tell you it was very smooth. That's all I can say. A lot of layers. This right here is you know 15 years plus of age. Dude this is the craziest wine I've ever tasted in my life. This is a pairing right here. $1,000 bottle of wine with some LA Calbee. It works. It works. The most expensive wine I may ever drink in my entire life. What would you say to Asian people who are like they're so used to having that rice wine that hard cut with no fruit and they're like dude I'm not going to eat like something made from grapes. I mean I think that's being sort of closed-minded right? Like you really want to open your mind up to try new things. All right you guys before we close out this section and we move on to our next location what was your favorite pairing today? I think I go back to the first one. The chicken dumpling and the jokselos. All right so my favorite pairing actually was your Magna Carta Bordeaux with the Calbee. Man that was like that was hitting man. Just let you know hey I didn't pay him to say that. Nah you didn't pay him to say that. All right just doing this video so far I gotta ask the question why should Asians drink more wine? I mean I think a lot of the benefits between wine culturally even especially being here wine is accepted at all you know sort of classes. Now I understand that wine obviously you know it's pretty much mostly a European thing. Being Asian-American like did you feel at all as an outsider while trying to get into wine? I mean you definitely feel it. There's nobody else that looks like us that's in the wine industry that you know in the past you know decade plus that I've been in it. You know we got to keep growing as a culture. It's going to open you up and just have so many different things for you to talk about and I realize now that it's a really fun technical world to get into with a lot of depth. Now we're headed to Astro Wine over in East Village for a very very helpful segment for you to describe what you should look for when walking into a wine shop because I'm not gonna lie I haven't walked into that many wine shops and I need to know the basics. We'll break it down on an easy basis on an every night basis on how to choose a bottle of wine. Man it's almost like walking to do a sneaker store. Hey just get grown. Alright you guys we are outside of Astro Wines. One of the best wine shops here in New York City we're gonna check it out. So we're gonna talk about different wines for different occasions what to expect when walking into a wine store. When we walk by a wine store we typically do not walk in. No but now after this video I'll bet you I will. This is my very first time in a wine shop okay. Alright Detroit we are at one of the biggest wine shops in New York City. This is one of my favorite and the best one that I come to every time in New York City. The layout is it's done by region so you need to know where your wine is coming from. Right because I see this sign over there and it says Italy Sparkles three hours ago Italy Sparkles would have made no sense to me. Now I get it I can read it. Alright DC what's the first thing somebody should examine when they enter an expansive wine store like this? I would think you would want to know what's your the game plan behind the wine. Are you having it for dinner with your girl date night. So the occasion is I'm this Asian guy who's trying to get my Asian friends in a wine normally we're drinking Heineken Hennessy we want to get passed out in something else what are we doing? I would look for quality wine that had great value spending a ton over your budget is not going to really be in play there. Hey the first place I would take you to looking for value looking for you know a hangout but having your you know educating your friends would be the Rhone Valley that's in France. The quality of the wines that you're going to get for the money is always going to be the best here and it's always great. They've been a great producer behind European sellers for me is a great importer of French wine so I know that this has you know value in it already even without ever tasting the wine myself. You believe in who imported it. Exactly I believe in their vision of who they work with. I just saw this label it looked kind of cool it has a mermaid on it should I get it. Not just the label the labels uh yeah with the pretty mermaid. Well that is how oftentimes a very rookie makes a read right they're like picking the wine off the label. I think 95 percent you go in it's either the price or it's the label that uh someone chooses a wine from. Should we do that or don't do that? I would not but if you don't know anything about the wine obviously you have to go off something the two things I would look for I would look for where it's coming from does say Rhone. The other thing bolder the importer is a good importer of wine so I would take a chance on this. Everybody likes Prosecco what is that? It's a sparkling wine from Italy. What should we be looking for when it comes to Prosecco? For me I would look for this right here DOCG uh Superior just means it's a higher profile higher vineyard what you got there extra dry superior you know and you know it may be a little bit sweeter. All right that's Prosecco all right the next situation that I have uh concocted in my mind that I think a lot of people would find useful is like you want to get a present for your boss. Burgundy is a great place for that. What you have there you chose uh Marceau phenomenal region for white burgundies uh I mean I don't know anything about the import or anything like that but I know Marceau is a great area for Burgundy it would be something I'd give a chance. I chose this this is something we actually had earlier they knew anything about wines they would know the producer just off hand and that's a red burgundy. How much is this running us? Uh this is 55. RDC we thought of a different situation this one you're trying to meet your fiance's parents. We're at Astor's wine cellar where only the limited really allocated wines are through so for me if you're really trying to impress them I would look at this linchpodge portos here I think that would be well the price point 300 bucks. All right immediately me being the noob that I am my eyes went to something with the coolest packaging. These are natural wines really right now it's a hot trend uh getting natural wines you want to drink them fresher because they don't last as long but they're gonna be unfiltered so it's gonna taste a little bit crisper fresher like a fresh juice. So how do they make it differently? If that be impressed with additional sulfur it's one of the main differences and it's all organic grapes. All right next scenario I just turned 24 I'm literally buying my first bottle of wine but I got a party of friends we want to have a wine party but we don't know anything about wine what are we getting? You know I would go to Spain great bang for your buck um you get a lot of great wines for under ten dollars you have a couple of them here you know uh Tempore Nio Chardonnay very fresh your friends are gonna love it we'll pair great with foods as well there's always the vintage behind where so this is a 2018 so that's from 2019. I think after looking into wines I realized that this whole world has very very many many many different layers to it. What are some good resources if you can shout them out for looking up what's a good wine? There's Seller Tracker there's regular reviewers of normal everyday wine drinkers that you know taste these wines and every vintage of it. You've been able to increase my IQ very quickly what is a path that other people can take? A high level wine store that has a lot of expertise choose a few bottles if there's something a style that you like I would speak to one of these wine associates here try a few different kinds and then try one that's not in your comfort zone. Yo DC man shout out to you this has been very fascinating eye opening I'm not gonna lie this was a world that I had heard a lot about but it felt very inaccessible to me and you just made it way more accessible. Yo I hope you enjoyed it hope you got a little educated I know it was a lot to take in you know one afternoon. You got something very special for the audience that you want to tell them about. I'm giving away 10 bottles of my Magna Carta Sellers to the first 10 people that leaves feedback to us. Here's how you're going to win the Magna Carta Sellers giveaway you have to be 21 years and older leave in the comments down below a story about you getting into wine what you learned or how you got introduced to it and then also leave your Instagram so they can contact you. Alright you guys that brings us to the end of our wine 101 video huge shout out to DC man where they can they find out more about Magna Carta Sellers. Yeah you can see us on instagram Magna Carta Sellers or see us at MagnaCartaSellers.com we paired it with Asian food we had different types of wines and we even had like maybe the most expensive wine I'll be drinking for a while now. Alright guys thank you so much for watching that video remember the giveaway we got more details in the description down below shout out to David Troy from Magna Carta and until next time we out peace