International Wine, Whisky Fair Billed for Douala

The second edition of the Tasting Art Summit will hold from November, 27-30.

The international trade fair for wine and whisky has been announced for Douala from November 27-30. Christened "Tasting Art Summit", the event will be attended by producers, current and potential consumers of wine and whisky, commonly called 'hot drinks', from France, USA and Cameroon.

Ahead of the fair, whose objective is to help people be able to differentiate good and genuine hot drinks from fake ones while discouraging consumption of the latter, reporters were equipped on their identification in Bonapriso on September 26. The session dubbed "Tasting Media Live" gave reporters a foretaste of the international trade fair which usually brings people together from far and near to sensitise on various categories and types of wines and whiskies, and offer a practical opportunity to taste the drinks so that they are able to differentiate between genuine and fake ones as well as make right choices of the drinks to take before, during and after meals for a better diet.

As to fake wine and whisky, the Coordinator of the Summit, Benijour Tchuingwa, warned against their consumption because of the blend of chemicals made from genuine hot drinks which are products of natural crops - wheat or maize. Distinguishing Scotch whisky, Irish whisky, American whisky, and eddu as various types, he said six categories exist: blended whisky, pure malt, single malt, single cask, whisky de grain and whisky millésimé further classified according to storage years, from 3-18 years. "As it gets older the taste improves and the scent gets stronger," he explained.

The war against fake wine, whisky is part of a little-noticed but hugely important shift in the struggle against dangers to health and security sponsored by a growing abuse of fake and highly alcoholic wines. Tasting Art Summit is organised by the cuisine association, Dégust'Art, which organises events around wines and prestigious rare whiskies.