28th
Chinese Wines for the Olympics
Just say it out loud to yourself…”Chinese Wines…” Mmmm-mm! Conjurs up all sorts of images in your head, most of which have nothing to do with fine wine. Up until recently, I have found Chinese wines to be unbearable, but didn’t understand why.
After doing some investigating, it turns out a country will produce great wines if they drink great wines. In other words, China has not been a wine drinking culture for centuries. If you were to travel to China 10 or 20 years ago, and sat down to enjoy a bottle of wine with a random stranger, they’d most likely have no idea what to do. I saw a photo recently that demonstrates this point. A guy was sitting in a restaurant with a bottle of Lafite Rothschild, and he was mixing it with a clear soda like 7up.
A man by the name of David Henderson has been in China since the 1970’s setting up IBM plants with a foam-molded packaging material. David is an American business man, and like any good business man, he saw opportunity. So David has spent the last decade or so setting up wine “schools” teaching Chinese about wine. He also started the first wine import company in China. David also went so far as to find and plant a vineyard at the base of the He Lan mountains, which is located along the 39th parallel, just like Napa Valley. Last year, David, and his U.S. import partner, Bartholomew Broadbent introduced the United States to the first quality Chinese wine called Dragon’s Hollow. The first vintage was made by the assistant winemaker from Lafite Rothschild, followed by the next vintage made by Ant Mackenzie from Spy Valley in New Zealand.
Dragon’s Hollow has 2 wines that are worth seeking out and enjoying, especiallly with the world’s attention focused on China for the olympics. The unoaked Chardonnay can easily be mistaken for a white Burgundy, and the Riesling is bone dry. These aren’t wines to have just with Chinese food, just like you wouldn’t have French wine only with French food. As China grows into a wine drinking nation, the wine industry is expected to also grow, possibly surpassing some major wine producing countries such as the US.
China is one of the last countries on earth to get into wine making. There aren’t many places left to discover great conditions to grow wine grapes. Dragon’s Hollow retails for around $12. You can be the first to discover the last frontier of wine.
Cheers!
