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in his guide for the newly emerged middle class Chinese male， “Life Like a Gentleman” （《绅士生活》Sh8nsh# Sh8nghu5）， British writer Edward Burman proposes that wine-drinking is an essential element in a modern gentleman’s life. The Chinese， however， have proved disappointing in this department， as Burman tells the horrific story of a wine importer in 1995. The man witnessed 12 bottles of pricey Lafite getting mixed with Sprite， bombarded by watermelon slices and gulped down by a group of Chinese businessmen while shouting “干杯！” （g`nb8i， cheers）. From the Western perspective， such drinking habits are certainly strange. But for many Chinese， the tannic taste of wine is just plain weird， believing wine should be sweet and fruity. All this began with a domestic Chinese wine called “half-juice wine，” wine that mixes fermented grape juice with other fruit juice， water and sugar. Because of the simple process in making the half-juice wine， it practically dominated the market until 2004， when such products were banned all together due to tainted wine production. Before then， almost all wine labels produced half-juice wine， such as Changyu （张裕） and Great Wall （长城 Ch1ngch9ng）.
Tonghua Grape Wine （通化葡萄酒 T4nghu3 P%t1oji^） used to be the favorite half-juice wine for the country’s leaders. Founded in 1937， Tonghua certainly had its day of glory. Produced from grapes grown at the foot of Changbai Mountain （长白山 Ch1ngb1i Sh`n） in Jilin Province， Tonghua wine was served at state banquets and diplomatic dinners and was promoted nationwide.
At one time， it was “The Red Wine of the Nation.” From the founding ceremony to China’s tenth anniversary， the sweet Tonghua wine was there every step of the way. Even former US president Richard Nixon and former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had their share of Tonghua wine during their visits to China. The taste of Tonghua Grape Wine was then regarded as standard for all wine.
Half-juice wine is easy to make. To cut costs， many smaller vintners even lowered the percentage of the grape juice and replaced it with more water and sugar. Such unpalatable chaos was finally put to a stop in 2004.
With new regulations and the increased importation of foreign wine， the Chinese taste for wine changed over time. “Beginners prefer relatively sweet wine，” says 33-year-old Joe Ma， manager of the Education and Publication Center of Aussino World
Wines， a successful wine importer for 12 years. “But as they gain more knowledge about wine， the general trend is that they will grow fonder of dry wine.”
According to Ma， people in the northern areas of China also tend to enjoy dry wine because their daily diet is made up of heavy flavors. As a result， people now enjoy wine without mixing. “It was done when the market wasn’t mature yet，” says Ma. “The quality of wine was not that good， and people added other stuff to cover the defects in the flavors. But now， a person with the slightest wine knowledge will refuse a mixed glass of wine.”
Chinese people now consume over 1.2 billion bottles of wine every year. With the growing number of wine drinkers， the expanding wine market and evolving wine culture， the Chinese taste for wine in the new age is still yet to be decided.- liu jue （刘珏）
Tonghua Grape Wine （通化葡萄酒 T4nghu3 P%t1oji^） used to be the favorite half-juice wine for the country’s leaders. Founded in 1937， Tonghua certainly had its day of glory. Produced from grapes grown at the foot of Changbai Mountain （长白山 Ch1ngb1i Sh`n） in Jilin Province， Tonghua wine was served at state banquets and diplomatic dinners and was promoted nationwide.
At one time， it was “The Red Wine of the Nation.” From the founding ceremony to China’s tenth anniversary， the sweet Tonghua wine was there every step of the way. Even former US president Richard Nixon and former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had their share of Tonghua wine during their visits to China. The taste of Tonghua Grape Wine was then regarded as standard for all wine.
Half-juice wine is easy to make. To cut costs， many smaller vintners even lowered the percentage of the grape juice and replaced it with more water and sugar. Such unpalatable chaos was finally put to a stop in 2004.
With new regulations and the increased importation of foreign wine， the Chinese taste for wine changed over time. “Beginners prefer relatively sweet wine，” says 33-year-old Joe Ma， manager of the Education and Publication Center of Aussino World
Wines， a successful wine importer for 12 years. “But as they gain more knowledge about wine， the general trend is that they will grow fonder of dry wine.”
According to Ma， people in the northern areas of China also tend to enjoy dry wine because their daily diet is made up of heavy flavors. As a result， people now enjoy wine without mixing. “It was done when the market wasn’t mature yet，” says Ma. “The quality of wine was not that good， and people added other stuff to cover the defects in the flavors. But now， a person with the slightest wine knowledge will refuse a mixed glass of wine.”
Chinese people now consume over 1.2 billion bottles of wine every year. With the growing number of wine drinkers， the expanding wine market and evolving wine culture， the Chinese taste for wine in the new age is still yet to be decided.- liu jue （刘珏）