Buying a winery is not like buying a house or merely acquiring property. Unfortunately the abundance of new wealth in China has led to some cross cultural misunderstandings.
Despite the ordinary and undistinguished nature of these wines, many are sold at quite high prices in China.
As I write this week’s column I’m jetting my way across the great Asian Euro continents, yet again reminded of the importance of memory, legacy and travel. Composing this article somewhere over South Asia while sampling several wines that have decent yet not exceptional attributes. My destination is Italy so in respect to the great peninsula nation that happens to make some of the world’s best wines, I selected two Italian wines, a light and charming Prosecco, then a rather outgoing but undistinguished Valpolicello Ripasso. All wines, like humans, behave differently at altitude. Some of us are relaxed and feel good as we jet across vast distances, while others suffer from the rigors of distance and altitude. The Prosecco is performing quite nice but the the Valpolicello is making me wish for a quick landing.
It began almost 30 years ago . . . a love affair with the wines produced from the Bordeaux region of France. Particularly, wines from the small, family owned Chateaus that dot the rolling hillsides of the beautiful ‘Right Bank’ countryside. It is from here, that my inspiration came.
About an hour drive out of San Francisco is one of the world’s premier wine regions. Napa Valley is arguably the best wine region in the U.S. making a wide range of high quality white, red and sparkling wines. The region features a majestic landscape with rolling hills and mountains warmed by intense sunlight but importantly cooled by the moist evening breezes flowing in from the Pacific Ocean. Last week I had the delicious privilege to visit Napa Valley and taste some truly memorable wines.
Lotus roots, the star ingredient in today’s iDeal feature story, are unquestionably one of China’s most iconic ingredients. Ironically, one of the best lotus root dishes I’ve tasted was at a Chinese restaurant in Auckland, New Zealand. Therefore, in this week’s column I revisit one of my favorite southern hemisphere regions.
The title of this week’s column may cause some readers to question whether I’ve been tipping the glass a few too many times, but the reality is that Britain has played an important role in the history and defining the style of wines. Normally when thinking about winemaking we conjure up thoughts of the big three of Europe, France, Italy and Spain or perhaps some of the dynamic wine region of the New World. You might be surprised to know that Great Britain makes some pretty impressive wines. The wine industry in England and Wales has always been small but recently it has garnered greater attention.
Nestled on the step hills of the Italian Alps is the wine region of Alto Adige. The northern most wine region in Italy features steep hillside vineyards that slope down to the Adige River and its tributaries. The combination of slooping vineyards with excellent exposure to the sun and a climate featuring sunny days and cool evenings results in some of the world’s most fresh and fragrant white wines. Any connoisseur of good wines will appreciate these wines but many of my female Chinese aquanitances find them particularly appealing. No longer willing to submit themselves to the heavy tannic reds favored by their husbands and boyfriends, the upwardly mobile young female professionals of China are making their own decisions on wines. This new market dynamic is changing the wine landscape in China and benefiting fragrant white wines like those from Alto Adige.
The long wine history of Portugal has seen many ups and downs with the downs decidedly prevalent over the last century. Recently there’s been a renaissance of sorts that has made Portuguese wines some of the most intriguing new wine discoveries in the world. About 8 percent of the land in Portugal is planted with vineyards and there are over 500 native varieties. The plethora of native grapes is confusing even to wine experts but this has hurt the consumption of wine within Portugal as the nation has one of the largest per capita consumption rates of wine.
It took me nearly a fortnight to recover but the memories of my 24 hours in Verona are as fresh as an acidic young white wine. I flew across the great Eurasian continent to attend a black tie gala ball where our wine guide had been nominated for one of the world’s most prestigious wine book awards. Even at my embarkation point, Taipei’s Taoyuan Airport, I was already quite fatigued as the preceding four days were a tiring mix of wine and media events in Taipei, Shanghai, Dailian and Hong Kong. I can assure you that being a wine writer has its rewards, but it can also be exhausting.
Wines like people have distinct personalities. Therefore just like people, to truly know wines is to understand their personalities. The first step is to choose a certain style or personality of wine that you like, then dedicate yourself to it. This is one of the best ways to ameliorate your wine knowledge. You will discover that while the wines may share similar personalities, no two wines are exactly the same. Your ability to sense their commonalities while also distinguishing their differences will be a significant step in building your knowledge and appreciation of wine. This is true because comparative analysis is an important skill in wine tasting. Learning to distinguish subtleties between similar wines hones your wine skills while building an intimacy with a style of wine you favor. Focusing your studies and tastings on a specific style of wine also protects you from getting utterly dumbfounded by the cornucopia of wines now available in Shanghai.
