Chin Chin

You’ve got to have a lot of bottle to ask this question: fancy a cheeky little Chinese chardonnay? Or a Cabernet Sauvignon? There’s plenty here…I think this is one up from a Jeroboam.

China has a lot of bottle. This is Chateau Changyu. Looks French, right? But, it’s near Beijing, one of many Chinese winemakers taking on the world.

And if you didn’t know there was Chinese fine wine, me too. But look, there’s the Cab Sauv, and that Chardonnay, and gift wine.

When a Monsieur of the Chateau offered to show me round I grabbed the chance. Though I had hoped it would be the wine served chilled.

‘Are there actually grapes which are in that vineyard because this doesn’t seem like ideal wine growing?’ I ask.

Frank Cui, one of the managers at Chateau Changyu says: ‘Cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, some of other kinds, but mainly those two.’

I ask ‘In this kind of weather, though, how do you protect the grapes?’

Frank: ‘This kind of weather, this kind of climate, it’s a little bit cold for the grapes, so we bury them into the soil and when it gets warmer we will ring them out of the soil.’

Wine going underground usually means the cellar. Here, they produce bottles mainly for the domestic market, and this is your fancy stuff, selling at 500 yuan or 70 dollars a bottle.

They even do champagne, even though they can’t call it champagne because it’s not made in champagne. But it is sparkling wine and I am so tempted, though I shouldn’t be doing this, to shake it all about and then uncork it as if we were celebrating something but I’m not allowed to do that so I can’t.

Someone’s opened a few though. Upstairs I did score a tasting session - not of the sparkling stuff, I note - but the chateau white and the chateau red ….

I was told to savour it…before I pronounced is to be ‘fruity’

As for the red, it had more unexpected notes….

Frank says: ‘Smoke flavour. Smoke’

I say: ‘yes, I can get smoke.’

Frank: ‘And sausage.’

‘Sausage?’

I left Chateau ‘Sausage’ impressed but I’m no expert. So where better to take my wine than one of Beijing’s smartest wine bars where owner John Gai and wine expert. Jim Boyce gave the connoisseurs’ assessment, here on the red.

Jim Boyce: ‘I don’t want to put this in my mouth.’

John Gai: ‘It’s just one smell. Really a bouquet dominating. To me, it’s tar. A bit of rubber.

I ask: ‘They said it had sausage in it’.

Jim: ‘Literally?’

I don’t think John GOT sausage. But Jim did concede something….

Jim: ‘It tastes better than it smells.’

John: ‘It’s drinkable. But not just much after-taste. Pretty short finish.’

Doesn’t seem like Chinese wine will be knocking French wine off its perch any time soon. But right now Chinese wine is more about fashion. How a bottle looks is key.

Meantime I wanted one last verdict …at the place in Beijing where everyone would be a wine expert….the French Cultural centre.

First they said no. Then they said go. Back outside I kept offering.

The first Frenchman who tries the wine says: ‘Thank you, it’s too warm for Chardonnay. It’s drinkable.’

Second Frenchman says: ‘I’m not an expert in French wine but it’s in our blood. Long pause. Then, in Chinese, he says ‘it’s not so good.’

I disagree. I think Chinese wine is going to be big. Well, even bigger.

Editor: Linda Kennedy

Camera: Christie Lee

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