The article sites the Chinese as being a gauge for economic and consumer trends. China has been on the upswing for wine consumption, namely French varieties and status labels. As my cousin Mary Oakley would say, the Chinese are buying up wine in exhibition of "face". They choose traditionally expensive wines from France and buy from major suppliers with well-known, expensive products. This gives them the insurance of getting a great wine all-the-while impressing those that come to dinner or just see the bottle sitting on the shelf. Like having an impractical car in the garage.
While Mr. S and I were in Napa, we learned that the Asian cultures are much more into wine now than they used to be. Some of the wineries had large export markets going right to Japan and China. They claimed that Asian cultures were getting into wine they way a teenager would - breaking into their affluent parent's wine cellar and taking the fanciest bottle (my words, not theirs). Since France is known for wine, French wines are the equivalent of a bright pink bottle with rhinestones and a blinking cork.
BUT. Relatively recent inclusion of California wines into European tastes tests prove that American wines can be just as impressive as (and in some cases, more so than) their French grandparents.
Now, this article only mentioned that the Chinese weren't buying as much French Bordeaux as they used to, and that they are branching out to other regional, French wines. Is the article leaving out American wines to make a point on the instability of wine sales? Are the Chinese just not as hot on American wines... yet? Or am I just overly patriotic of our wines and therefore should support the wine industry and buy local :)
Purple Toad from Paducah, KY. I got this wine from my parents when they visited Paducah.
