Judgement of Ningxia? Chinese wines beat Bordeaux

[Robin Garr]

Chinese wines beat France in blind tasting
Sapa-AFP | 14 December, 2011 14:23

A remote region of northern China that began growing grapes for fine wine just a decade ago has beaten the centuries-old French wine-producing region of Bordeaux in a blind tasting held in Beijing.

A group of wine experts -- five French and five Chinese -- ranked the bottles from the remote and sparsely populated Ningxia region above those from Bordeaux at the tasting, held on Wednesday in Beijing.

The jury sampled five wines from each region, selecting a cabernet sauvignon from the Grace Vineyard in Ningxia as the top-scoring bottle -- a shock result echoing a 1976 contest that saw the classics humbled by New World wines.

Full story:
http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2011/1 ... nd-tasting

Everytime I see one these suposedly unlikely tasting results, my first question, even before reading the article, is "what wines were they up against." What we have learned here is that a moderately priced Chinese wine can beat a cheap (when adjusted for the crazy import tax they mentioned) Bordeaux. I would still consider this encouraging, but hardly earth-shattering. The Judgement of Paris put Cali Cabs up against First Growths, after all.

Also, the world of wine is much different than in 1976. It's no longer at all shocking to have an up-and-coming wine region get this kind of recognition.

Everytime I see one these suposedly unlikely tasting results, my first question, even before reading the article, is "what wines were they up against." What we have learned here is that a moderately priced Chinese wine can beat a cheap (when adjusted for the crazy import tax they mentioned) Bordeaux. .

Good points. The Bordeaux lineup:
2009 Saga Medoc
2009 Mouton-Cadet
2009 Calvet Medoc Reserve de L'Estey
2008 Cordier Prestige
2008 Kressman Grande Reserve

not a single estate wine

doesn't mean the Ningxia wines aren't good, but that's pretty feeble competition

I have tasted a few Chinese wines (not from the Ningxia region) and, believe me, no one is going to confuse them with a Bordeaux of any level. In fact, the Chinese wines I have tasted are unlikely to be confused with wine. A Chinese colleague best described one of the wines that we tasted as "spoiled berry juice that has been diluted with water".

The ability to buy and drink Bordeaux is a huge status symbol over there. It is such a big deal that I have attended a couple of rather large business dinners at which the host brought out his Bordeaux to show it to the attendees, but then served a different wine! Apparently that is not considered bad form in China as they don't try to hide the fact that the wines are being switched up. Just don't get your hopes up when a Chinese host flashes a bottle of Lafite Rothschild.

Thank you for the good laugh! Who were the French guys? (not the wineries--the judges!)

What Steve said. Tried a couple of what were supposed to be good Chinese wines when in Hong Kong 2 years ago Bleh, Fooey, Ick.

My favorite bit is the "2009 Medoc from the Lafite vineyard in Bordeaux" which they procured form 200-400 yuan (including a 48% import tax). Which wine was that?

I tried Grace vyrd once (a present from our man in Singapore), and it was a bland and oaky piece of industrial wine making.

Peter

Hi All,

I am one of the organizers of the Ningxia vs Bordeaux Challenge. A few comments:

@ Ryan,

Re the "crazy import tax" faced by Bordeaux. Total tax for Bordeaux wines is ~48%. But Chinese wines also face consumption and value-added taxes that total ~30%. This reduces the gap between the two significantly.

@ Sam,

We aren't claiming all Chinese wine is good but there are people working hard to make better wines. Jia Bei Lan, from Ningxia, took the "international trophy" at the Decanter awards this year, in the category Bordeaux over 10 pounds. Writers such as Jancis Robinson, Lisa Perotti-Brown, Ch'ng Poh Tiong and others have written positively about Ningxia wines, and many top restaurants and five-star hotels here stock them. Most Chinese wine does have quality issues, and the wines we used in the contest represent a small part of the market, but their emergence is encouraging.

@ Steve,

The details re the French and Chinese judges are here: http://www.grapewallofchina.com/2011/12 ... challenge/

We had a wide range of people from the industry -- from wine makers to consultants to educators to professors. The bottles were opened and tested by Philip Osenton, who works for wine distributor Globus and is former head sommelier at the Ritz London. Media members were present for every stage of the contest, including scoring. Foreign media present included Wall Street Journal, Reuters and AFP.

@ Lou,

Europeans tend to have a similar experience in terms of American beer. They try Budweiser and some other mass market brand and decide all American beer is like that. Luckily, we now have some tasty American beers here in Beijing -- Brooklyn, Rogue, North Coast, etc; even, as of last month, Dead Guy Ale on tap -- that I can introduce such people to. I hope you get a chance to try some of the better Chinese wines.

Finally, the contest idea was to compare top Ningxia wines with the big Bordeaux brands consumers in China might have heard based on prices in China. At no time did we say we were doing a "Judgment of Beijing" or using top Bordeaux. This contest was for consumers here based on prices here, with one goal to get more people interested in wine. In essence, we said: If you have rmb500 in your pocked, and these 10 options -- 5 from China and 5 from Beijing -- what ones would the judges recommend? Another contest, using estate Bordeaux, is in the works.

Cheers, Boyce

Note: If anyone is interested in the results, they are here: http://www.grapewallofchina.com/categor ... challenge/

Jim,

Thanks for the detailed post.

I think it is a great thing to have your best region working to promote quality wines and to test them against Bordeaux that is available locally. Cheers to you!

At the end of your post you say"If you have rmb500 in your pocked, and these 10 options -- 5 from China and 5 from Beijing" you mean 10 from Bordeaux, right?

Thanks again for jumping in and explaining the results.

Hi All,

I am one of the organizers of the Ningxia vs Bordeaux Challenge. A few comments:

@ Ryan,

Re the "crazy import tax" faced by Bordeaux. Total tax for Bordeaux wines is ~48%. But Chinese wines also face consumption and value-added taxes that total ~30%. This reduces the gap between the two significantly.

@ Sam,

We aren't claiming all Chinese wine is good but there are people working hard to make better wines. Jia Bei Lan, from Ningxia, took the "international trophy" at the Decanter awards this year, in the category Bordeaux over 10 pounds. Writers such as Jancis Robinson, Lisa Perotti-Brown, Ch'ng Poh Tiong and others have written positively about Ningxia wines, and many top restaurants and five-star hotels here stock them. Most Chinese wine does have quality issues, and the wines we used in the contest represent a small part of the market, but their emergence is encouraging.

@ Steve,

The details re the French and Chinese judges are here: http://www.grapewallofchina.com/2011/12 ... challenge/

We had a wide range of people from the industry -- from wine makers to consultants to educators to professors. The bottles were opened and tested by Philip Osenton, who works for wine distributor Globus and is former head sommelier at the Ritz London. Media members were present for every stage of the contest, including scoring. Foreign media present included Wall Street Journal, Reuters and AFP.

@ Lou,

Europeans tend to have a similar experience in terms of American beer. They try Budweiser and some other mass market brand and decide all American beer is like that. Luckily, we now have some tasty American beers here in Beijing -- Brooklyn, Rogue, North Coast, etc; even, as of last month, Dead Guy Ale on tap -- that I can introduce such people to. I hope you get a chance to try some of the better Chinese wines.

Finally, the contest idea was to compare top Ningxia wines with the big Bordeaux brands consumers in China might have heard based on prices in China. At no time did we say we were doing a "Judgment of Beijing" or using top Bordeaux. This contest was for consumers here based on prices here, with one goal to get more people interested in wine. In essence, we said: If you have rmb500 in your pocked, and these 10 options -- 5 from China and 5 from Beijing -- what ones would the judges recommend? Another contest, using estate Bordeaux, is in the works.

Cheers, Boyce

Note: If anyone is interested in the results, they are here: http://www.grapewallofchina.com/categor ... challenge/