Schindlers Tankstelle (Sanlitun)

For our 12 October  2021 Rotary talk on red wine in China we had as speaker Jessica Davis. Her topic: “Red Wine in China”. See some of the dishes!

Our Rotaractor Sophie received thanks for helping out for the paperwork related to our project of hypospadias, see: https://www.beijing1980.com/2017/04/13/hypospadias-surgeries-need-support/

Highlight of the talk

After graduating from Purdue University in the U.S., Jessica, like many young people looking for foreign adventures, came to the Middle Kingdom, initially intending to stay for one year. Now 11 years later, Jessica has moved from being an MBA student and later to a TV host for a travel show, to now a wine specialist and marketer for Ca’Del Grevino, a Santa Maria California winery with Italian roots. Jessica started the talk with a general introduction to the history of red wine in China, which has grown exponentially in the past 20 years, and made China the world’s largest market for red wine by 2014. In the past decades, red wine has catapulted from being an inferior western import to the darling of the rich and powerful class, and rare wines from the world’s famous wineries have become status symbols. But Chinese thirst and consumption for expensive wines have been thwarted by the anti-corruption campaign starting in 2013, and also by the punitive high tariffs due to the recent trade wars. Imports now make up 40% of wines in China, with France leading the imported varieties, ahead of Chile, Italy, and Spain, whilst Australian and US imports have been hurt by the high tariffs in recent years because of tensions in bi-lateral trade.

But Jessica’s talk was more than the description of the phenomena of red wine conquering the Chinese palate, it was the rare tasting and elaboration of Pinot Noir, an expensive grape that was hard to grow and cultivate, because of its very thin and delicate skins. She brought two Pinot Noir for her talk. The 2019 Grevino Bambola Pinot Noir was a bit young but was 100% Pinot Noir, smooth with a fruity flavor. The second was a 2013 Red Carpet Pinot Noir, an outstanding wine with an aroma of cherry, ripe plums, and spices. Stored for 10 months in a French Oak Barrel and hand-harvested and hand-sorted, only 150 cases of this Red Carpet Pinot Noir were produced, and only 4 bottles were left in China. France, California, Australia, and New Zealand are the major producers of Pinot Noir.