Epicure
Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin
By Linda Kennedy (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-27 10:51
"Non," says the man at the French Cultural Center in Beijing. "You cannot do that here." I am trying to pour him a nip of Chardonnay. Five minutes later, moi and my plonk are dumped back outside in the cold, all attempts to offer an impromptu wine tasting denied.
Well, this is a funny old rejection. The French are saying no to my offer of wine? What's happening to the world? Then I remember what I have in the bottle. It is "le vin chinois".
The reason for this tasting is the rise in winemaking in China. I have been finding out more about it - and if it's any good. There are many hotels and restaurants in the capital city that are so classy, five stars don't really convey their character. Might Chinese wine one day topple French as the glass of choice served at these top tables? And from there, take over the world?
In pursuit of answers, I have thus far taken a wine tour of one of China's foremost chateaux. Chateau Changyu offers a taste of France, north of Beijing. Not only is there a chateau which Louis XIV would find fitting, there is a French village attached, complete with main square and Post Office. They are aiming at the wine tasting and tourism market.
Chateau Changyu is just one of the growing number of wine producers in China. The domestic market for wine is enormous. Recently, Pioneer wines, a leading wine producer, said net profits rose by 43 percent during the third quarter. And it has plans to massively expand its grape plantations by the end of next year. So far wine only accounts for less than 2 percent of beverage consumption in the country. But it's growing.
Yet wine production is not without its controversy. Some of China's wine is known as blended - imported wine. In other words, it's imported in bulk from other wine-producing countries, and blended here, before being sold under a Chinese brand.
One of the monsieurs of the Chateau showed me around Chateau Changyu, and the posh plonk from their vineyards tasted very good indeed to me. But what do I know? Like many British women, my main association with Chardonnay is Bridget Jones, who selected that particular wine on feeling sorry for herself during another Darcy-less evening in the 1990s.
Armed with some bottles of Changyu wine we headed to wine bar Palette Vino, a sanctuary of sipping in Beijing. Owner John Gai - whose card reads "WineGai" - had agreed to put his palate on the line. With him was Jim Boyce, a Confucius of Cabernet, who writes a wine blog called the www.grapewallofchina.com
One was serious, the other loud and jovial, and their partnership was so redolent of the comedians Laurel and Hardy, it was all I could do to refrain from linking the adjectives frequently given to white and red, and call them "Floral and Hearty".
They sipped. They judged. But - having picked up the "lingua vino" - I couldn't possibly give away the big finish by telling you what they thought Nor indeed, the further reaction of the French, outside the cultural center. Will anyone at least comment on the "aroma" of the Chinese wine in the glass? Or rather than judging its "nose", will they just turn up their own?
