Bordeaux meets China

Many years ago, FT’s wine columnist and the driving force behind the Oxford Companion to Wine, Jancis Robinson, surprised me by saying that China was the next wine superpower. True, the Chinese elite loves to splurge on expensive wine, but as snobs will inform you sotto voce, most still have the finest Bordeaux claret with cola and ice. Such tales may sound apocryphal, but the announcement by Lafite Rothschild that it was investing in China’s growing wine industry, has made the world take notice. Owned by Europe’s leading banking family, Lafite is one of Bordeaux’s top five wine houses, and if China is on its map, then we must look to our northern neighbour for wine wisdom.

China is no stranger to attention from wine behemoths. The second joint venture between a Chinese and an international company (Remy Martin) in 1980, was, in fact, the genesis of the country’s most popular wine brand, Dynasty. Since then, the Chinese have come a long way, and the top London wine merchants, Berry Brothers and Rudd, predicted last year that in 50 years, Chinese wines would match Bordeaux’s finest.

I recently got an opportunity to taste Chinese wines. I think the brand was called Great Wall and after I took my first sip, the words that came instantly to my mind were ‘rocket fuel’. I’ve never tasted rocket fuel and I haven’t heard a wine critic describe anything he has drunk as such, but that’s how I felt about the fiery liquid.

I was at an international wine show in Singapore along with representatives of Nashik’s as-yet nascent industry. When they saw my reaction to the wine, they were thrilled. Look, they said, we may not get major French investment, but at least our wine doesn’t taste like rocket fuel (however that actually tastes). I think the analogy stemmed from my reaction to the Chinese wine’s acid attack—the gentle balance between tartness and fruitiness cannot be created naturally in a country with extreme weather conditions.

That may explain why I haven’t seen Chinese wines on the menus of Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong, Singapore, London, Melbourne or New York. Most likely, they will serve Jacob’s Creek, or some other Australian plonk, but you won’t find a Dynasty or a Great Wall. Thankfully, the Chinese drink 90 per cent of the wine they make. According to the stats, Chinese women prefer white wine to beer, still the drink of choice among Chinese men. Reds are popular among the elite, who are now a prized market for Bordeaux’s finest.

But unlike their Indian sisters, Chinese women aren’t that big in their wine market, so 80 per cent of China’s vineyards produce red grapes with only 20 per cent devoted to whites. With over 400 wineries, China is the world’s sixthlargest wine-producing country. Interestingly, the same Berry Brothers report that predicted a golden future for Chinese wines says India will, by 2060, become the centre for fine wines with the help of foreign expertise. Will China grow beyond rocket fuel ? With Lafite Rothschild’s entrance into the country, the answer has to be a guarded “yes”.

— Sourish Bhattacharyya is Executive Editor, Mail Today