China and Wine - The Potential for Potential

In 1996 I was part of the first US Wine Delegation to China since 1949. This is old news. In the decade that has passed enormous changes have been wrought in the wine world. From micro-oxygenation and barrel alternatives, to a movie that eschewed Merlot for Pinot Noir, all the way to the near universal acceptance of a really good screw-cap.

In 1996 I would have never guessed that these things would be a part of the everyday wine world we live in. What nearly every wine expert polled would have agreed on back then, is that China would be a nascent wine drinking nation by now. No question that wine is on the rise in China, but has it lived up to its potential? Is China on the brink of being the next great market for all things vinous?

Not so you would notice.

Several recent articles have dealt with this question. The Washington Post recently reported an upsurge in wine popularity in China. And while they were kind enough to quote me in the article, I can't help but wonder if this is really it, or just another false start.

China is really, really populated. Every time anyone does the math on potential sales to China, of anything, much less wine, their head all but explodes with possible figures. It is an almost untapped market, with all of that, well... potential.

But potential doesn't buy wine, money does. And while there is a rising middle class in China, it is a drop in the bucket. The same Washington Post article cites 500,000 people in China make as much as $64,000. That is a great living by Chinese standards, but it is only 0.04% of the population.

For more than 90% of the Chinese, even the lowest priced wine at around $4, is out of their reach.

So this tiny percentage of the population with their disposable income are drinking wine, but what kind of wine? The usual suspects. Without a heritage of enjoying wine for wine's sake, they gravitate towards the well known labels. The wines they have heard and read about in the context of Western culture, primarily Bordeaux.

Given the lessons of history, low expectations, and few if any laws regarding fraud, there is no guarantee they are even drinking what they are paying for. To be fair this is true anywhere, but in China there are far fewer people who are trained to know the difference.

If wine, as we think of it in the West, was the cheapest alcoholic beverage money could by, it probably still wouldn't be the most popular in China. Why not? Because of taste.

The Chinese have made wine since the dawn of time, but they have tended to let herbs and various less common ingredients, seep in and flavor the wine. Wine has always been more medicinal that recreational. Those in China that do drink wine, often prefer these traditional styles which are more familiar to them.

For recreation the Chinese have long preferred strong and clear liquors which are consumed as shots, and can, at the host's discretion, be easily replaced by water, allowing the host to seemingly out drink his guest.

Frat house drinking games aside, alcoholic beverages in China represent an aspect of culture, either traditional and revered, or Western and coveted. Marketing to their desire for social status is currently more effective than trying to pair wines with foods.

This is not altogether different than wine marketing was in the US just 30 years ago. Weaning a beer drinking nation off the hops and onto the grape took decades here, and that was without the corresponding economic concerns.

In 1996 I suggested that China had a long way to go, for all the same reasons I cite here. I suggested then that education was the key, and I still stand by that. If we want to sell wine to the Chinese, we need to teach them how to make it part of their lives, and not just something you trot out on occasions to impress.

Here it is 2007, and China has made only a few strides, but at least they have been in the right direction.

If you are planning on selling wine in China, think long term and be prepared to build brand loyalty, no matter what the cost.

If you are in China and are hoping to learn more about wine, be aware that it is not all about price. Money is no guarantee of quality. There are any number of great wines that are not status symbols. It is what is inside the bottle and not on the label, that counts.

For me the potential of wine in China is not about the huge numbers, it is about culture. The Chinese love food. They love to share their food. Food is their life. In fact I can only think of one other country I have seen that is anywhere near as passionate about food, and that country is arguably the greatest wine country of all, France!

I would love to say that once the right wines are introduced, those that elevate the food (Riesling comes to mind) it will be much easier for wine to move from status symbol, to the dinner table. The deepest problem remains though - economics.

Diabetes and Wine

A few years ago I was diagnosed with diabetes. For a food and wine lover this was the last thing I ever wanted to hear. I was sure my life was about to change, and that I would never have a decent meal or any fun, ever. My life did change, but I still get to eat pretty well.

What follows is an anecdotal tale of my personal experiences. I can not begin to stress enough that I am not giving advice, and that you should check with your doctor and nutritionist before changing your diet in any way. That said, here is what life is like for a diabetic ex-chef with a serious love for wine.

Carbs are the killer. White bread and white rice are just as bad as sugar for my glycemic index (a term I will be using a lot, and abbreviating as GI). Whole wheat bread is better than white bread, but brown rice doesn't seem to make any difference, for me.

It is that "difference for me" part that is important. Being a good scientist I test my blood sugar level any time I add something new to my diet. This is the only way I can tell what makes a difference, and how much.

Not all carbs effect me the same way. I can eat potatoes without a blip in my GI. I can eat starchy vegetables like beans and corn, and again, no problem for me. I so much as look at regular pasta and my numbers go through the roof (the Dreamfields brand of pasta is much better on my numbers).

The good news for red wine lovers is that most dry red wines have little to no sugar (that being the meaning of dry). White wines are much more likely to have some sugar.

Personally, I love dessert wines, and these have been relegated to the once in a great while category. That said, I recently tested my numbers two hours after having a big glass of very sweet dessert wine, and I was only 110. I suspect that my body deals with the fructose (the sugar in fruit, and so wine) better than other kinds of carbs.

Diabetics are trying to ensure their future. Rarely do we really have to worry about day to day effects of diabetes (unless you go way too low, or way too high). It is all about reducing the risk of complications, especially cardiac complications, that might pop up years from now.

Considering the health benefits of red wine, many diabetics, myself included, consider that a moderate amount of red wine is down right good for us. Most of the expert sources reluctantly agree. If you test, and red wine does not seem to be effecting your GI, than a glass or two with a meal may be for you.

This is important news for wine loving diabetics. Too many of us assume that our lives have been changed so dramatically that we will never be able to enjoy anything we love, ever again. In all things moderation, and for diabetics, or anyone, a moderate amount of wine may not to be anything to be concerned with.

I can not stress enough how important it is to test regularly, and randomly. I was so good about testing that I had gotten to the point where I knew exactly what effect every type of food would have on me. And so I got out of the habit. Dramatic, and unhealthy weight loss after a bout of the flu sent me back to my meter to see if there was a connection, and indeed there was. My numbers were in the high 300s, close to needing to be hospitalized.

A couple of weeks of careful diet, and a slight adjustment of my medication and I was back to where I was before (with an A1c around 6). The great news is that I was not only able to get it all back under control again, but I did it, and continue to do it without suffering a bit.

If you or a loved one are a diabetic and a wine drinker, there is hope. After checking with your doctor, nutritionists, and making sure you attorneys don't hold me liable, you may be able to continue enjoying your red wine (and occasional sweet or white wines) without a qualm.

What Wine is Worth

I have to wipe the sleep out of my eyes, perk up and give a drive time radio show interview, with some regularity. At least this morning's interview was with KSRO Radio in Sonoma, and the time zone was in my favor for a change. By the way, if any of you heard the show, my name is pronounced reese - not rice (I only told them 3 times).

Today's topic was about Wine Fraud, a subject on which I have have had a lot to say of late. I prepared a good 20 minutes worth of discussion in my mind, but I got closer to two minutes of actual air time. Which is why you are about to settle in for my latest installment on the subject.

Adulterating wine, by adding sugar (or water) when you are not allowed to, or even stretching it with wine from another region, are common and well known instances of wine fraud. Switching labels is the most obvious way to defraud a consumer, but today I am going to talk about the least obvious.

The most insidious, and probably common instance of bilking the consumer is not actually fraud at all. It is the simple act of charging more than a wine is worth.

Just how much is a wine worth anyway? Rare wines, those that are traded at auction and demand the highest premiums are commodities as much as coffee and sugar are.

These wines are traded for investment purposes, often a half dozen or more times, before being opened, with each iteration raising the price.

Auctions are fickle market places, a wine that sold for $1,000 with spirited bidding one week, may not get so much as a raised eyebrow the next. Conversely wines may sell for many times greater than their expected values, setting a new benchmark for the future, and skewing averages.

When these wines are young, they are sold as "futures," essentially a way to gamble on their price before they are even released.

In the early 70s, and again at the turn of the 21st century, this practice led to mediocre vintages being greatly overpriced, before anyone even had a chance to taste them.

So if you can't trust auction results, and future trading can drive prices beyond demand, how do you know when you are paying a fair price for a wine?

In short, you don't and can't know.

Instead you can do what any good consumer does, shop around and compare prices. The Internet has made this much easier than it used to be.

And yet, a quick search for 1982 Mouton yields US retail prices as low as $845 and as high as $1795 for the same wine.

You would think that the ability to look up these prices so easily would have led to a smaller disparity in prices. They haven't.

And why not? Because there is still a sucker born every day.

The merchants that are selling wine for twice as much as the competition are doing so for one reason only, they can get away with it. They are committing no crime, and my implications to the contrary, they are not even defrauding the consumer.

Don't be a sucker. Don't pay more for a wine than you have to. If the circumstances warrant it, and you are comfortable with the price, no amount is too much. If however, you can't quell the feeling that you are getting ripped off, you probably are.

I appraise wine cellars, and I charge for it. This is just a bit of a disclaimer, because of course I would love to appraise your collection. I go out of my way to be as fair as possible, and to take every aspect into consideration, and for this reason, beware too who may be setting values of your wines.

If you are not going to use me, and of course not all of you are, be sure that you use someone who's motives you trust. Asking the buyer to appraise your wines is not a good idea.

For those of you doing it yourself, remember that auction prices are wholesale, and retail prices will be at least double, and don't forget to add the commission in any auction prices.

Oh, and for all you radio, and TV people out there, yes, I am always happy to be a guest on your program, but if you are an East Coast morning drive time show, expect a few yawns on my end.

The corner of Hollywood and Wine

Aspen has some unusual opportunities for a small mining town. This week HBO is here and they brought the Comedy Arts Festival, and hundreds of people from the entertainment industry (much less the throngs that are here just to laugh).

Like many of you I stare wistfully into the entertainment industry through a window. I am entranced by the personalities, the possibilities, and the occasional opportunity. So what does this have to do with wine, you may rightly ask? It turns out that those in the entertainment industry have been staring back through the same window, into the wine world.

With great regularity, the first line from someone after being introduced to me, is to say "I wish I had your job." I smile and point out the draw backs of being me. The early morning meetings in suit and tie (a very non Aspen thing on both accounts), trying to find something nice to say about a wine that just made me grimace, and finally, my complete inability to control the way the world perceives wine.

Through my book, website, newsletter, this blog, and the occasional article, I certainly have been doing my best to mold impressionable minds. I have been hard at work trying to help people realize that wine is something that is fun, and not something to be afraid of. I have endeavored to separate fact from fiction, and truth from opinion. But I have failed.

How do I know I have failed? Because I watch movies and television, and they still don't "get" wine.

Many of those in the entertainment industry have more than their noses pressed up against the window of the wine world. From well known game show hosts, to award winning film directors, entertainers have a hand in wine.

Success comes in many forms, but for wine lovers, success is often measured in the ability to collect, and enjoy the finest wines. The Hollywood elite has been known to enjoy wine, and this is not just idle speculation, as a wine steward in Aspen for over 20 years, this is based on first hand knowledge.

So why then does the entertainment industry so often get wine so horribly wrong?

I am not talking about the pale colored liquid that passes for wine most of the time. I understand why you may not want you actors really sipping wine, take after take, through a long hard day.

I am not even talking about making references to wine, when the bottle is visible, and is clearly not the wine they are talking about.

And while it is tempting, I am not even including the movie Sideways that managed to bring amazing attention to wine, even after getting so much of it wrong.

I am talking about really stupid things. As in a recent episode of Las Vegas (that I watched just because the info said it was about wine). In this episode there was a bottle of wine that sold for one million dollars.

It was a late vintage DRC Montrachet. That's right, a 20th century WHITE wine. A nice wine, in fact one of the wines I have the fondest memory of (tasted at the winery), but in the furthest stretch of the imagination, it is only worth about $1,000.

It gets worse. In the episode the bottle was a fraud (and those tasting the wine oohed and ahed before learning of it). How did they know the wine was a fraud? Because the label was the wrong kind of printing.

Sound familiar? That's right, the plot could have been lifted directly from this blog. I wrote about a just such a case when I was illustrating my experience with wine forensics.

I wouldn't mind if they did steal it from me, although credit would always be nice, but the problem is, that even the details of the printing they got exactly backwards.

So why does this stick in my craw? What is it about all this that gets me going enough to write about it?

Simply because researchers have been known to call me to get such details right. CSI New York placed a call, but missed me, and decided to do without, it will be fun to see how they do. There is no need to get it wrong, when you can get it right with a simple phone call.

I am a resource for the entertainment industry. Sure, I would love to see my name in the credits, who wouldn't? But I realize this is unlikely, and yet I continue to offer my services.

Why? Partly because I have my face up to the window and wish I could be part of the entertainment industry. Partly because getting it wrong just ticks me off. But mostly because it is my mission in life to show to the world that wine is fun and not scary.

Telling people they could spend a million dollars on a white wine that is not even authentic is not only inaccurate, it poorly serves the wine industry at large.

Oh, and the next time you need someone to taste your million dollar wine, and tell you if it is the real deal, think of me.