Black Bottle — Minsheng, Taipei

Finished up work in the evening and came to this place, where I met Brother Yan, who's 71. Brother Yan has been in the food and beverage industry for 45 years, having run French, Spanish, and Italian restaurants. We hadn't even chatted much after I sat down, and without ordering or paying for any drinks, Brother Yan first poured me 6 glasses of wine to try—4 whites and 2 reds. Later, a sales rep from a liquor distributor came over and offered Brother Yan some whiskey to sample. Brother Yan knows many distributors in Taipei. The shop was supposed to close at 22:30, but Brother Yan and I ended up drinking and having a great conversation until after 7 a.m. Cheers! By ...