Chinese Wines?

Filed in archive Wine Tasting on May 18, 2007

We often hear about having issues with pairing Chinese food with wines. Normally sweeter wines, like Rieslings, will do for this, but part of the problem is that Chinese food should be paired with Chinese wines. Looks like that is happening already.

From The ultimate Chinese takeout: Chinese wine production has doubled in the past decade to 434,300 tons, and is expected to grow by 15 percent a year, the PD says, although it may say something that they measure wine output in tons. It may also say something that China's chief wine spokesman is Wang Qi, president of the wine branch of the China Brewing Industry.

He's candid about Chinese wines: "They still have a long way to go to compete internationally, and the lack of national standards handicaps the healthy development of domestic wine industry."

Still, an October article in Business Week titled "Potations from Chairman Mao" said some of China's 500 wineries are making "surprisingly good wine."

And three wines from the Dragon seal Winery tasted here last week were very nice -- if not quite ready for Wine Spectator's Top 100 list. Imported by Halby Marketing of Sonomoa, Calif., and distributed by Uva Cellars of Hollywood, Fla.,Dragon Seal is from grapes grown on 617 acres in Huailal County, 75 miles northwest of Beijing in the Sacheng Basin, at the foot of China's Great Wall.

French winemaker Jerome Sabate says growing conditions are similar to those in central and northern France. He says he uses French vines, state-of-the-art equipment and French and American oak barrels to make pinot noir, merlot, cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, riesling and an all-chardonnay blanc de blancs style sparkling wine.

I'm defnitely going to keep an eye for these down here in Florida now.

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