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Merde! Chinese Wines Did What to French Wines?
By Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com
In France, the litany of job reductions continues. Today, Air France added 2,000 jobs to be eliminated to the 4,000 it had already announced. Late October, automaker PSA Peugeot Citroën announced 4,000 layoffs. Banks—Crédit Agricole, BNP Paribas, Société Générale, and Crédit Foncier—chimed in with their own job reductions. Then there were Areva, the largely government-owned nuclear-power conglomerate, drug maker Sanofi, ferry operator Seafrance (in liquidation), and newspapers—Les Échos, Parisien-Aujourd'hui, France-Soir, and Comareq (in liquidation). It’s tough out there. And now, France’s heavily subsidized signature industry—wines—got slapped in the face. By China.
In a blind winetasting competition in Beijing on December 14, five wines from Bordeaux and five wines from Ningxia—all priced between 200 and 500 yuan—were wrapped in black cloth, tagged with a number, and served to ten French and ten Chinese wine judges. The judges spent 40 minutes tasting and ranking the wines and another 30 minutes discussing them. Then the results were announced: the top four wines were Chinese!
- Grace Vineyard Chairman’s Reserve 2009
- Silver Heights The Summit 2009
- Helan Qing Xue Jia Bei Lan Cabernet Dry Red 2009
- Grace Vineyard Deep Blue 2009
- Barons de Rothschild Collection Saga Medoc 2009
The other losers in alphabetical order: Calvet Reserve De L’Estey Medoc 2009, Cordier Prestige Rouge 2008, Kressmann Grande Réserve St-Émilion AOC 2008, Mouton Cadet Reserve Medoc 2009, and Silver Heights Family Reserve 2009.
“Sacrilège,” screamed the headline of the French business daily, La Tribune. But the top French dailies, Le Monde and Le Figaro, seemed to suppress the news, quite understandably. The people have enough to worry about.
“Yesterday’s tasting suggested Ningxia wines can hold their own against bigger Bordeaux brands,” wrote Jim Boyce, organizer of the Ningxia vs Bordeaux Challenge, and administrator of www.grapewallofchina.com/. Ningxia, an autonomous region in Northwest China, appears to be the up and coming wine-growing area.
OK, French wines have been beaten with some regularity ever since the Judgment of Paris on May 24, 1976, when, to the utter and never fully digested shock of the French wine establishment, a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and a Chardonnay beat their Bordeaux counterparts—and put California on the international wine map.
“We never claimed this was the Beijing version of The Judgment of Paris,” Boyce said modestly. The tasting wasn’t designed to compare the best of Bordeaux to the best of Ningxia, but, as Boyce writes in his follow-up post on the tasting:
“We used a price range to compare top Ningxia wines with bigger and better-known Bordeaux brands sold here by major distributors—brands consumers are more likely to know and have access to.”
Of course, wine competitions can be criticized. The French wines were handicapped by an import tax of 48% (another detail of why China has a huge trade surplus with the rest of the world). But then, Chinese wines got hit with consumption and value-added taxes that reduced the gap to 20%, according to Boyce. And the most expensive Bordeaux retailed for rmb350 while the winning Ningxia retailed for rmb488. Quite a price difference.
But who could have imagined a few years ago spending $77 on a bottle of good Chinese wine to be shared over a romantic dinner? The French must have had similar thoughts about California wines in the aftermath of May 24, 1976.
And for more upheaval in the old world order.... PROST! Germany lost the beer war, and China won.
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This is no story. These are high-end chinese wines in a taste test against budget swill from bordeaux. The chinese wines on this list sell for approximately 10 times their competitors.
fond memories
of Kashgar vinyards
in the early fall..
After the competition four judges were hospitalized. On further analysis the Chinese wines were found to be contaminated with E. Coli, arsenic, methyl chloride, lead, melamine, and cadmium.
This is no big deal. Despite searching, I have never found a really good french wine. Some have been ok, but not great.
OTOH, there are a lot of great, inexpensive, California wines. When China beats out California in the taste tests, then they will have really accomplished something.
Check out the independent movie "Bottle Shock" , related to the Judgement of Paris. Dramatized of course, but funny.
French whines will always be louder and more obnoxious than any other country's.
Yes indeed.
I understand french wines are much better than they taste.
Of course, wines out of cool, rainy France could never compete on a level playing field with California or Chile. The only thing that has kept them alive, so far, is simple snob appeal. But I would not consider a competition taking place in Beijing as evidence of the superiority of Chinese wines. No doubt they can produce it at low cost, and, with the help of a favorable exchange rate, ship it all over the world. But the proof of the pudding lies with the opinion of millions of wine drinkers worldwide.
French wine is extremly overvalued in the anglo-american world. The trick the French use is to pretend, that you can buy European culture with an overpriced bottle of wine. You can´t. European culture is a matter of culture and not money.
european culture..is that an oxymoron.....kinda like a rich man has a canopy over his bed and a poor man has one under his bed....?
The chance that top four wines would be Chinese by chance is only 1 in 16. So with more than a 90% confidence level, one can say that Chinese wines are superior.
Where is the Chinese cheese to go with the wine?
China was a very large and growing market for French wines. At least, Sarko can still sell them Louis Vuitton luggage - for a couple more years.
horrible math
I love a delightful beaujolis with melamine, mercury and lead.
Funny, if you only knew just how much Bisphenol-A, Fluoride, Aluminum, <insert cancer inducing chemical here> you eat, drink, smear on your armpits, oint on your skin to "protect you from hazardous sunburn"....
Yeah, but the standard American response to China is a Pavlovian response.
Conditioned like lab rats . . .
I always thought Bordeaux red wine was overrated. I think most is mixed that comes here and they export the trash.I got some German gold capsule whites that will blow the socks off anything French. German wine sucked for so long they are trying to make amends and you can find some smoking sleepers from the old growing regions for next to nothing. I have a 3 bottles of Dr. Loosen that is flat a symphony of the palate, some Piersporter Goldstrophchen that is so good I can't open a bottle around people or its instantly gone, perfection in a bottle. The last decent frog wine I bought was a Chateneau Du Pape (the Papal Chateau) that was good. But, I must admit the best wine I ever drank was a french red from Pouilly-Fume. Might just be my own taste though. Some of the best reds I have drank lately have come from South America of all places.
edit Poilly-Fume= white
ditto south america.... and cheap
Some of the Argentinian Malbecs' are outstanding! (yes, and cheap too).
I will try one or two of these German whites. Not a big fan of white but we do a few bottles of pinot grigio now and then. I caught some trout today and a socks off white sounds good at the moment. Thanks.
NY Finger Lakes region does some good stuff:
http://www.drfrankwines.com/
"Hugh Johnson's Pocket Wine Book 2012, the number one bestselling wine guide, gave Dr. Frank Wine Cellars a "Four Star Rating" and noted the winery as being, "a leader in the East, with Excellent Riesling,Gewürztraminer, Chardonnay, Grüner Veltliner, Pinot Noir and fine Chateau Frank sparkling."
The reds from Ravines are fantastic. I think the owner used to work for Dr. Franks?
They got a 91 in Wine Spectator for a Riesling too.
http://ravineswine.com/welcome/
Finger Lakes environment is pretty much unspoiled. Keuka Lake is the place.
Sir, please step away from the fishing pole with your hands in the air and show us your fishing permit. What's that you say? No permit? Sir, there is room for you in the next TRAIN headed for the nearest FEMA camp. Please come with us.
I'll still have my favorite pole with me.
"Socks off white" and Pinot Grigio do not belong in the same paragraph....
For value a Viognier from the Languedoc....
Ummm, very earthy with an aroma of freshly smelted lead....
And just a hint of foot.
Not surprising at all.
French wines suck.
Those Chinese wines would be no match for good Italian wines, though.
CONFIRMED FRENCH TOAST: FRANCE TO PLUNGE INTO RECESSION IN....2011!!
http://www.tdg.ch/actu/economie/france-breve-recession-fin-2011-debut-20...
FRANCE OFFICIALLY HAS PLUNGED INTO A RECESSION. SARKOZY TO BE VOTED OUT OR WORSE:
http://www.corriere.it/esteri/11_dicembre_15/francia-recessione-montefio...
BERLUSCONI TORPEDOES GS PUPPET MONTI'S SERVILIST ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE EU:
http://www.corriere.it/politica/11_dicembre_15/bossi-berlusconi_ae81d932...
Wow that's a pretty blanket statement. I think it's a question of style. California and Australia-style wines have bigger, more prominent single flavours or "notes", berry, oak, tobacco, pepper, etc. In France, by contrast, the style is to be more balanced: no single flavor is supposed to stand out from the others, they're supposed to be carefully balanced around a theme of flavors. Cal and Aussie are often called "big" wines...but as I get older I appreciate the balance and subtlety of French wines more. Price is a different story...
People's taste in wine tends to evolve with age & experience.
Depending on the sophistication of one's palate, one of the great appeals of old-world wines is the slight *ahem* 'farmyard' stink some of them feature. Very few New World wines have this in any acceptable way.
If you like that style, Spanish wines offer more bang for the buck. French wines are almost always overpriced, but they still make some of the finest wines in the world. Their low to lower-middle range stuff is best avoided, unless you're actually buying in France, where it's relatively inexpensive.
I prefer the best Cava to most reasonably priced (50-100 euros a bottle) Champagnes. But I'm not a fan of the (oak ripened) spanish red wines unless you park me in Spain on a mountian village with some excellent tapas. It's funny how that goes, but some food and drink have a totally different impact when consumed in the place of origin. And I wasn't being the tourist.
I wonder what that's like for chinese products?
um, I prefer Miller Genuine Draft. Fuck the whine.
I wonder if the grapes were grown in China or imported.
I also wonder if the vintner is from China, or imported.
Just sayin...
Good questions, but anyway, the article could be translated as: "Car race organized in China - triomph of great Chinese V12 over crappy French Twingos - Merde! Chinese cars did what to French cars?".
I'm always astonished that zerohedge can give many interesting information together with a few ridiculous uninformative articles like this one.
Good questions. If you click on the links, you’ll get to the event organizer's site (in English) with info on the specific wines and their origins. All from Ningxia.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWBUl7oT9sA
Great one arrowhead, on the floor with that one..
cheers
Lead corks!
Rich tannin structure with a melamine finish.
Courtesy of the French you can now taste insolvency
Mmm I'll have a glass of 2008 Chinese Melamine! And here's some for my baby...
Merde!! Mon Dieu!!
p3 repeatedly
over yet more and more whining
as nauseating as it is excruciating, a year here on this most sickening of sites belies what specific financial knowledge has already contributed to our very own Truth Commiseration --yes. we sheeple herein have seen fit to form what's yet another committee, where the truth goes to die-- as we further and further continue to use our assumed exclusivity and its do-nothing humor to remove ourselves from incrimination . . . our own private little nation of fools
Living In Fear. all while and in the meantime afraid of Whom: a very small ethnocracy of jews, whose actions not just speak louder than words but, holophrastikos, do in fact silence an entire occident from saying the one word which is here as everywhere its own very simple explanation of all such hurt and harm: ROTHSCHILDT: The City Of London, whose very active do-doers shit wherever they want and all over us
while in the meantime here still yet again left reading such swallowed shit as this:Enough of anonymous corporate or governmental lables...we need names...names.
reply
Wed, 12/14/2011 - 03:13 | 1977826 4horse
take a wild fucking guess
corzine.paulson.bernanke.geithner.dimon.blankfein . . . mere hirelings
United States . . . ? . . . this is the Ukraine: fin de seicle PNAC < 19th . . .
where the same blueprint by the same few jews is being followed right down to its T-- TERROR --and how soon the removal of yet another 30million people in a Holodor here everyday joked about in our branded black humor as just more mere FEMA material over already missing americans ridiculed like just bounced CHEKA out of their financialfunnies of that funniest DHS __cancelled__ one-by-one being stripped right in front of us, of their humanity, while an xhumanties' man like myself quote the great minds behind this self-same suffering of What Is To Be Done and What Then Must We Do . . . ? . . . To Who
a few jews: whose written history is the hidden history of all our own hiding away from their last hundreds-of-years of full-spectral dominance
geithner.dimon.blankfein.Rubin _stein. Safir _s. Gold _men. Silver _steins. Diamond _mines. The Family Jew_els
denying, denying, denying the obvious, as each and every one of these foreign apparats defy us to our face-- yeh. like whatcha gonna do about it
Charge Them. CHARGE THEM. Charge them with their crimes: INDICT each and every individual Roth's Child for what each treasonous trader of american value for International Jewry is doing right here/right now right-before-our eyes every single hour of every single day . . . . . . and do so, each individual jew, before these few again, despite all their present searching-surveillance-and-dhs, again sacrifice ALL of their innocent own along with whoever else gets in their way of again successfully accomplishing such massmedia massmurder worldwar slaughter as is only their own arsenal from Antisemitisn to Zionism
this now completed full year here has made me as sick of myself as everybody else: all along and altogether for the want of one word, holophrastikos, that is the imperative of just this one simple single verb: DO
needing use, hapex legomenon, only once
.
enough.
too much.
verbiage
Incoherent douchery is incoherent.
the entire world has a "jewish" problem.
This time the pogrom will be global.
Whats the matter.... get tired of reading Mein Kampf?
speaking of reading mein cum f ff fff
I have found that the best values in wine come are to be found in the SW of France, eg. Cahors, Languedoc, Madiran followed closely by Cotes du Rhone.... The generic exports under the Bordeaux appellation tend to be tannic and uninteresting (once again, nuggets exist)....
Rave all you want about Russian River Pinots, I'll take the Cotes du Nuit anytime....
And just so you know, I have Ch. Montelenas sitting close by to my Ch. Pavie in the cellar
f ff fffinesse. jus oh so f ffabulous, mr phlegmeister. and, jus so oui oui know, monsewer oenophile, do seem a cellardweller as has much more interesting things going into than coming out of your mouth
oui oui
may be, merci, gifted with such a trained tongue, such a knowing nose, as only knows such mein whiners and winners as goes oui oui to only the f ff ffinest fucking things in life
riot
you're a-barrel-of-laughs if not- declasse -monkeys, having such monies as you can blow on chateau effete holed up in yer wisdom and winecum
__and funny. fun. one never to tire reading minds accustom to such dissemination of mein fucking f ff ffun
I wish I could find it in myself to find your comments insightful, intellectual and thought provoking.
But I can't.
DavidC
Daleks.
The new ultimate solution.
Coming to a Wal-Mart near you:
"2-Buck Chang"
You're talking to the wrong crowd. ZHers are old and retiring soon. Of course they are cowards.
Good stuff, interesting style.
Incidentally, Sarkozy is a Jew devil, overseeing the genocide of the French via mass Muslim and African invasion. France will have no wine in 100 years because the French will have long been slaughtered or enslaved by the invaders. Unless the backlash is soon and severe against these satanic Jews and their pet hordes.
And, Manischewitz is garbage.