PrintChinese Wine Coming to a Restaurant Near You?
In the "Year in Ideas" issue of the New York Times Magazine, Amy Cortese informs serious eaters that, according to a credible published report, within 50 years China will be the leading wine-producing country in the world.
Before I start riffing about moo shu red and General Tso's white wine, it's worth noting that this prediction is not so outlandish at all. Right now, in 2008, China is already the sixth-largest wine-producer in the world.
In fact, there is now a Grace Chairman's Reserve wine produced by a Shanxi winery Grace Vineyards, a Bordeaux-style blend, selling for $60 or more.
And the Chinese are serious about their wine endeavors. They're apparently bringing in wine experts from France, Italy, and the United States in their quest.
A cautionary note: Cortese acknowledges that most present-day Chinese wine is not regarded as drinkable to Western palates.
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8 Comments:
With Chinese mass manufacturing, I suppose we'll see something like less-than-2-buck-chuck (with lead and melamine) soon. Which is not to say that some good wines won't come out of China. It's just that a lot of extremely cheap wine will probably also be produced.
wunami at 8:07PM on 12/16/08
For $60, you can buy a very serious bottle of wine from any respected wine region of the world.
I have tried many Chinese wines, and they are about as thin and insipid as you get - no different than any super cheap bulk wine. Don't waste your money, you will sorely be disappointed, then you will realize you just got ripped off.
Also the inside secret is, most Chinese wines are blended with the cheapest bulk import wine on the market. It is known to come from Australia, Spain, Chile, Argentina, and other locales.
You will do much better by buying 6 decent $10 bottles of wine from any decent wine producing region of the world, and giving 5 of them away.
Sorry, but I speak of the truth, I am an expat in the F&B industry based in China.
fatbuddy at 8:31PM on 12/16/08
Two things can be true at once: It's possible that most Chinese wine is currently bad or counterfeit or both (and that none of it is worth $60) and that in 50 years (maybe more, depending on how the economic slump affects the Chinese) some of it will be really good and there will be a lot of it. I don't know what "the leading producer in the world" means, except for quantity, and (again depending on economic growth) it's not inconceivable that a home market of a billion and a half people will be the largest in the world. Berry Brothers and Rudd is a serious firm and not given to wild statements. I doubt that they mean that China will surpass (perhaps not even equal) France, Italy, the U.S., Australia, and Germany in the quality of its best wines. But that it might be the largest producer in the world with some very good wines seems perfectly plausible to me. California was producing some superb wines within 50 years after the end of prohibition (1983), as is New Zealand, which started essentially from scratch 35 years ago.
gustoct at 2:46PM on 12/17/08
I definitely second the comment that it is "not drinkable to Western palates." I was in China a couple years ago and I made the mistake of ordering wine. Oh boy. I decided to just stick with beer from there on out.
yumSoup at 4:08PM on 12/17/08
Not that the beer is that much better, yumSoup. I've had some pretty skanky Chinese "beer" in my day. Wine is, at its core, grape juice gone bad, but done in a carefully controlled way. Do we trust the Chinese to do anything in a 'carefully controlled way'? Methinks not.
shoneyjoe at 4:44PM on 12/17/08
Great article in the Wall St Journal several years ago about Chinese wine, and how it is so rank the Chinese always mix it with soda, usually Coke. When western wines were first imported, the aristocrats would think nothing of ordering a Chateau Petrus with a side of Coke as a mixer. I shit-you-not!
f650gsd at 1:28PM on 12/18/08
@ fatbuddy,
I don't think blending imported wine in China is an "inside secret." There are statistics provided each year on the amount of bulk wine coming into the country. And in some cases, that bulk wine is better than the local wine, so the result is a better product. A bigger problem, at least to me, is that the labels of the bottle don't usually reflect the content of imported wine.
Cheers, boyce
boyce at 5:57AM on 02/14/09
Berry Bros. is hardly going out on a limb by saying China will be a leading producer, given the country has a billion-plus people and an increasing amount of money.
Since I probably won't be around in 50 years, I can say at present that the wines are, as noted above, generally "thin and insipid" but there are some decent drops out there. Grace has the only decent portfolio, but I have had decent wines from Catai, Huadong, Dragon Seal, Suntime, and others. It is the consistency that is such a problem.
Cheers, boyce
boyce at 6:00AM on 02/14/09