Chinese Wine Culture(s)II

            Chinese wines account for something like 90% of the total wine
            market in China. The big companies ?Great Wall, Changyu, Dynasty
            etc. ?are essentially state-run enterprises or joint ventures
            harnessing considerable clout when it comes to grape purchasing.
            These 'wineries' ?let's say 'wine producing companies' ?also
            distribute nationally and hit on-trade and off-trade locations
            simultaneously: so you can find their wines in hotels, restaurants
            and supermarkets (other wine retail is pretty limited in China,
            especially in the north). It's rumoured that state-owned
            agricultural giant Cofco derives around 20% of its profits from
            Great Wall alone: so someone's got to be buying the stuff ?a lot of
            it.
            What Chinese consumers are not told is that these 'Chinese wines'
            are often blended with bulk imports, whenever another country yields
            a sizeable surplus. But this can actually be beneficial given the
            state of the Chinese wines with which imports of usually already
            finished wine ?most recently from Chile and Spain ?are mixed. In
            assembling the wines for a blind-tasting of China's best for Jancis
            Robinson MW on her last visit to Shanghai, there were some examples
            with suspiciously fruity 'New World' noses. At least these were
            drinkable, however. Other Chinese wines either suffer from poor
            wine-making or the impossible hurdle of trying to make quality wine
            from inferior grapes. Faced with the fear of rot and crop-loss many
            farmers understandably pick early; so unripe odours, harsh acidity
            and green tannins are all common problems.
            Which raises a question: once the novelty of wine wears off for
            middle class Chinese consumers, how many will tolerate faulty or
            insipid Chinese wines, especially when those same consumers are
            experiencing increasingly affordable, faultless wines from Australia
            and Chile? The Chinese are already developing more experienced
            palates, particularly those who travel; and they are cultivating
            their budding appreciation for wine, from a more 'taste sensitive'
            cultural background in the first place.
            For instance, in my experience, novice Chinese tasters are a lot
            easier to coach in learning to perceive acidity, residual sugar and
            the textures of different tannins, for example, compared with, dare
            I say it, 'Anglo-Saxons' or at least those who have grown up in
            cultures affected by the Protestant and Puritan legacies: food as
            'fuel' rather than as an inherent and cultivatable, aesthetic
            pleasure. This is not surprising given that 'mouth-feel' is a word
            commonly used in Mandarin for describing the textures of Chinese
            foods: characters that existed long before the English term found
            its way into the vocabulary of international wine tasting.
            Admittedly, some Chinese wines are bought simply for patriotic
            reasons or as gifts ?especially during Autumn Festival and Chinese
            New Year. But super-rich middle-aged Chinese consumers now look down
            on Chinese wine and either gravitate to Bordeaux or, in some cases,
            even own their own private wine clubs that import directly from
            France. Younger consumers also want to try something new and,
            therefore, usually 'non-Chinese'. In the long term, then, Chinese
            wines may eventually struggle to compete with imports, unless some
            miraculous improvements in quality can be made. That Cofco itself
            has now begun importing wine does not suggest as much, perhaps; but
            it does indicate that the powers that be are anticipating the taste
            for imported wines will grow.
            Although loyalty to China is still a factor, Prof. Ma Huiqin of
            China Agricultural University (left) has conducted some revealing
            consumer surveys, including blind-tasting tests, comparing Chinese
            wines with some of those international wines now available in China.
            Generally speaking, these experiments reveal that Chinese tasters
            tend to reject Chinese wines when tasted blind, very often the same
            wines whose packaging they have previously found attractive. True
            enough, such wines probably will continue to sell by packaging and
            the allure of the 'patriotic buy' alone; but more discerning palates
            will look elsewhere for vinous satisfaction and the chance to try
            'new', exotic wines from international countries. That said, it is
            likely to be a long time before the import market carves a
            significant chunk out of the domestic market overall; and in some
            ways these two sectors might exist weirdly in tandem, even at a
            remove: with Chinese wine becoming one kind of 'grape beverage' and
            international wines commanding different attention and, of course,
            different drinkers. But it's still too early, especially in the
            current global economic situation, to say.