WTN: Chinese Wines

[Fengyi]

These notes are from a very enjoyable evening spent tasting a selection of the better Chinese wines available here in Beijing. It was held under the auspices of Jim ‘Beijing’ Boyce (Beijing Bloyce Blog) , who regularly blogs on drinking, bars and wine in the Chinese capital. No one directly connected with the sales of these wines was present and both flights 2 and 3 were presented blind. The marks are really generous - we started off with bounds of enthusiasm(!) and tried to be reasonably upbeat....

1st Flight of 2 whites

Grace (Shanxi) Chardonnay 2005

A medium straw-gold with nose of candied lemon and slightly green apple-ly. Some light citrus on palate with medium alcohol, ripeness and fairly good balance. 15/20

60RMB

Catai (Shangdong) Chardonnay 2005

Light straw gold with disappointing nose. Little fruit (fruit-scalped?). Pronounced bitterness on palate with not very attractive flavours. 10/20

36RMB

2nd Flight of 3 reds

Catai (Shandong) Cab Sauv 2005

Medium ruby with tawny glints. Bright berry with confected red fruits. Smooth tannins with medium alcohol and body. Thin and not very inspiring. 13/20

36RMB

Catai Merlot 2004

Medium garnet colour with an oaky green nose. Some ripe-ish dark fruit and slight burnt notes. Palate was pleasant with medium alcohol, body and tannins but the fruit didn’t really come through as much as it should. Did fall apart by the end of the tasting when we re-visited it. 15/20

36 RMB

Grace Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

Medium bricky red with dusty berries smell. Medium alcohol and body with some tannins present but not pronounced. The palate was quite ‘hollow’ and unsatisfying somehow (typical of unblended Cabernet?) 13/20

60RMB

3rd Flight of 4 reds (including a ringer)

Grace Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 Tasya’s Reserve

Medium ruby with a bright, confected berry nose. Quite green with slight black currant notes. Medium bodied and medium alcohol with slightly stalky yet attractive tannins. Seemed like a nice quality Loire Cab Franc. 15/20

188RMB

Catai Cabernet Sauvignon 2003

Medium ruby with browning glints. Slightly strange but (over time) attractive nose with Bovril and meaty dark berries. Medium tannins, with structure and acid a bit out of whack to feel balanced. It was, strangely enough, in a Burgundy shaped bottle…. 13/20

236 RMB

Bodega Langes Cabernet Sauvignon 2003

This wine is the pet project of the Swarovski crystal people – and probably would be better off sealed in a crystal bottle without opening it….

Medium garnet colour with the most odd burnt coffee (like Starbucks dark roast) nose. Very woody and tarry with very little fruit. The palate was quite nastily aggressive with unyielding tannins and acidity. This wine is matured in Chinese Oak from the North Korean border. The novelty value does not outweigh the basic fact that the wine they put into the barrels is not sufficiently high quality and the oak itself has a highly bizarre taste. 9/20

About $50 USD(!)

Penfolds Bin 128 Coonawarra Shiraz 2003

The Ringer. The nose seemed very, very alcoholic after all the Chinese reds and the fruit was completely different with jammy, hot notes. Good balance though (especially after the Langes). 15/20 (in line with the other scoring)

128 RMB

4th flight of fun

Grace Cab Franc 2003 Tasya’s Reserve

This, with the Grace Chardonnay, was one of my favourites of a not-great evening. It had a nice stalky-red fruit nose with smooth low-level tannins and good acid. It was very nice with the mild hard cheeses that were served as well -though maybe they just helped the wine along!! 16/20

198RMB

Changyu Sparkling Cider NV

Nice fine bubbles with a slightly artificial red-apply nose. Good acidity though a bit thin. Medium sweet on the palate but fairly well balanced. Light in alcohol. Great QPR with a magnum selling for less than 2 GB pounds! a firm 20/20 for value - about 14/20 for taste!

26RMB for a princely 1.5 L

In all, quite a disappointing evening. We had hoped to find some promising wines, but none of them really shone or were particularly memorable. We tried to be kind with the marking, but the main point that came to be discussed is why the average quality of Chinese wine is so low. Some of the points that surfaced during a very fun evening were the market being not discerning or mature enough, the lack of ‘boutique’ wineries with hands-on owners really impassioned about wine-making, the wine-making style which seems to produce wines that all tasted old before their time and the lack of concentration or extraction.

Edited February 26, 2007 by Fengyi (log)

[BonVivant]

i had many bottles on previous trip and thought most of them were gross this one, which i brought along as part of lunch at Simatai section, was 'acceptable' but i forgot what it's called [mostly chinese script on the label]. i kept hoping maybe the next one(s) would be better then i'd take photos. poured a few down the drain [either because it was so vile or had turned to vinegar]. i'm going to take photo of every bottle this time for my own record of bad chinese wines.