{"id":373,"date":"2011-09-09T21:59:33","date_gmt":"2011-09-09T20:59:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=373"},"modified":"2012-08-27T22:13:36","modified_gmt":"2012-08-27T21:13:36","slug":"a-chinese-toast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/a-chinese-toast\/","title":{"rendered":"A Chinese Toast"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The 2011 Decanter World Wine Awards dinner was held last Wednesday with the results of the top awards winners announced on the night. For the first time in its history a Chinese Wine took an International Trophy<\/a>, the highest award level, in the Red Bordeaux Varietal Over \u00a310 class.<\/p>\n

I’ve travelled to China a few times now and have barely scratched the surface of its domestic wines which were, up until a few years ago at least, regarded as a low quality, high volume offerings. Truth be told some of what I did drink over there remains so, however, slowly but surely, an ethos of quality over quantity is spreading amongst a small number of Chinese wine producers which hopefully will continue after this week’s news.<\/p>\n

Of course I haven’t been to Ningxia province where the award winner (the Jia Bei Lan 2009 Cabernet blend) was made – and it is not available in the UK – but I did manage to go to Ch\u00e2teau Bolongbao outside Beijing nearly a year ago, which I wrote about on Reign of Terroir in my Fabrique en Chine post last December<\/a>. Here I picked up a bottle of 2004 \u54c1\u4e3d\u73e0 (Cabernet Franc) for the princely sum of \u00a330 and this weekend seems like the perfect excuse to open it and toast Chinese winemakers!<\/p>\n

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On first pour the wine looks remarkably clear and pale for a Cabernet Franc, more Pinotesque with a tawny hue giving the appearance of much more age than the 2004 on the label would suggest.<\/p>\n

The nose is smoky and sweet, a touch of spice but also some stewed fruit, developing tobacco aspects after a little time in the glass. There’s a little vegetal aspect hidden away and overall it’s very pleasant (as long as you’re not looking for something fresh and fruity).<\/p>\n

The taste is delicate with a port-like flavours, although without the alcohol. There’s a touch of raisin as well, subtle, but definitely there – I wonder if 2004 was a hot year near Beijing? The tannins are light and fine-grained, with some chocolate texture from the mid-palate through into the finish which at first seems short but then you notice a lingering aftertaste, not quite bitter, not quite sweet. There’s just enough acidity to balance the tannins and retain a freshness than means I’m now onto the third glass and heading towards a fourth (good job the abv is only 12.5%!).<\/p>\n

The wine is good, 3+ stars, maybe approaching 4. It’s not a \u00a330 wine compared to some that you can get in the UK, but this is something that you can’t get here and I’m not disappointed I bought it – I’m enjoying the flavours and textures plus it has an emotional aspect after coming back with me all those thousands of miles from a small winery a short distance outside of Beijing City.<\/p>\n

Gan bei!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2011 Decanter World Wine Awards dinner was held last Wednesday with the results of the top awards winners announced on the night. For the first time in its history a Chinese Wine took an International Trophy, the highest award … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,45,43],"tags":[87,88,32],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.northeastwine.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}