Part 2: Confessions of a Chinese Wine Consultant Continued - ¡°The Vinous Bafflement¡±(2)
We had to be careful in other respects too. No doubt the extent of our wine knowledge and tasting experience ‡° not remarkable by UK standards, but intimidating to some people in what is a new trade here primed us for the odd encounter or two (¡±odd¡± in all senses), even with the best will in the world. Local Chinese were very willing to learn, but some of the ex-pat community probably wondered who we (wine upstarts) were! No doubt some still do.
Still, we were told some pretty strange and frankly erroneous things by those who claimed to have a handle on wine (always a bad sign): that Port is not alcoholic, that the only way to taste wine is to swallow it, that all ros¨¦ wines are a blend of white and red (and so on and so forth). Of course, no one can reasonably get annoyed at general misunderstanding or getting the wrong end of the stick, at least on this level; but there was a danger that new Chinese wine lovers were being peddled garbage dressed as ¡°wine education¡± by locals and foreigners alike. At the same time, we were lucky to meet people who combined knowledge with experience of the market, even if these were in short supply (the people and the knowledge).
One importer, showing off his ¡°intimate¡± knowledge of Burgundy, declared to me at what was an awkwardly empty tasting to begin with: ¡°Oh, yes, we¡¯re very pleased. We¡¯ve just got in some Moux.¡± I strained, silently toying over the word: ¡°Moux¡±? Er, producer? Vineyard? Village? None of above?¡It¡¯s a Grand Cru I was informed in a breezy, matter-of-fact tone, as if I should have known this given I was a wine educator. Some very long seconds passed. Eventually, the penny dropping, I blurted: ¡°Oh, yes, Clos des Mouches, right, yeah, near Beaune, yeah, stupidly adding, ¡°it¡¯s not a Grand Cru¡±. Stony silence. (Flickr photo by palindrome6996)
I hadn¡¯t intended to play teacher and know there is always more to learn about wine (especially Burgundy). But by this stage, even after a few months in Beijing, I¡¯d just got sick of people trotting out, ¡°Oh, it¡¯s a Grand Cru¡± for just about every French wine under the sun; even those, that have no ¡°Grand Cru¡± appellation system.
It was time to go back to school (and, for me, take an extra course in diplomacy).
