French wine growers had their finely trained noses put out of joint when they were trounced by a group of Chinese wines in a blind tasting.

"/> French wine growers had their finely trained noses put out of joint when they were trounced by a group of Chinese wines in a blind tasting.

" />
Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

WINE

Chinese wines beat French at own game

French wine growers had their finely trained noses put out of joint when they were trounced by a group of Chinese wines in a blind tasting.

Published: 22 December 2011 12:54 CET
Chinese wines beat French at own game
Tatlin

The event, which took place in Beijing, lined up five French wines against five from China.

To guarantee fair play, the judges were made up of five French and five Chinese wine experts.

Four wines from the north-western Ningxia region of China beat all the wines from Bordeaux, France’s most famous wine area.

The first placed wine was a cabernet sauvignon from the Grace Vineyard Chairman’s reserve.

It was left to a 2009 Lafite Saga from the Medoc area of Bordeaux to restore Gallic pride in fifth place.

The event was reminiscent of a similar contest in 1976 between French and American wines. Known as the Judgement of Paris, there was dismay in France when Californian wines beat their French opposition.

“The Ningxia region has huge potential,” said Nathalie Sibille, a Bordeaux specialist quoted in daily newspaper 20 Minutes.

“People will have to change their opinion of Chinese wines,” added one member of the jury, Fiona Sun.

twitter.com/matthew_warren

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

FARMING

Cold snap ‘could slash French wine harvest by 30 percent’

A rare cold snap that froze vineyards across much of France this month could see harvest yields drop by around a third this year, France's national agriculture observatory said on Thursday.

Published: 22 April 2021 15:09 CEST
Cold snap 'could slash French wine harvest by 30 percent'
A winemaker checks whether there is life in the buds of his vineyard in Le Landreau, near Nantes in western France, on April 12th, following several nights of frost. Photo: Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS / AFP

Winemakers were forced to light fires and candles among their vines as nighttime temperatures plunged after weeks of unseasonably warm weather that had spurred early budding.

Scores of vulnerable fruit and vegetable orchards were also hit in what Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie called “probably the greatest agricultural catastrophe of the beginning of the 21st century.”

IN PICTURES: French vineyards ablaze in bid to ward off frosts

The government has promised more than €1 billion in aid for destroyed grapes and other crops.

Based on reported losses so far, the damage could result in up to 15 million fewer hectolitres of wine, a drop of 28 to 30 percent from the average yields over the past five years, the FranceAgriMer agency said.

That would represent €1.5 to €2 billion of lost revenue for the sector, Ygor Gibelind, head of the agency’s wine division, said by videoconference.

It would also roughly coincide with the tally from France’s FNSEA agriculture union.

Prime Minister Jean Castex vowed during a visit to damaged fields in southern France last Saturday that the emergency aid would be made available in the coming days to help farmers cope with the “exceptional situation.”

READ ALSO: ‘We’ve lost at least 70,000 bottles’ – French winemakers count the cost of late frosts

SHOW COMMENTS