Made in China

Recent interruption to “At Sea with Nathan”

I have been travelling through China recently and after my last two posts I found that my blog had been taken down and I had been excluded from any access to any of my Google sites such as email.

I am now in Japan and have re-established access to my account albeit with a change of passwords and several confirming emails to Google about the name of my first cat, the colour of my car and my great grandmother’s maiden name.

Google then advised that my account had been “tampered” with hence the lockout.

When I re-gained access I noticed that my last blog which was a review of a bottle of wine was deleted and unable to be re-instated. The only conspiracy theory based answer for this, which I am sometimes prone to take, was that my prose offended the Government of the area I was travelling through. The particular blog post of concern that was deleted by persons unknown was a review of a bottle of a cheeky little Chinese 1995 Cabernet red wine. The label quite proudly boasts “Made in China”. I now repost a tempered version of my tasting notes.

This cheeky red wine, from the Great Wall Vineyards attracted my attention so I thought that when in Rome one should drink like a Roman, or middle class Chinese in this case. The cost of the wine and the year of make was an imposing $30,000 Yuan that suggested a good drop inside.

The bottle has an impressive label that catches the eye from a distance with fine charcoal etchings of the Great Wall of China. A closer inspection of the descriptor text did not auger well for an oral feast of finely fermented grapes whose vines have heritage of many centuries.

 To quote the label:

“The wine was made of best grapes in the world and with internal advanced technics, it is clarity and hasful- badie fruit smell, vinosity and longaftertaste”. … sic

Excited by these grand words I broke olive bread, warmed the Brie and aired the wine. The bread was crisp, the olives salty and the Brie melted across my knife. The wine however did not quite reach the fruitiness of a Californian cabernet or the acidic edge of a French Hermitage. Of course there was no similarity to the peppery, bold Australian reds.

In summary:

Sweet tones of summer fruits

Hints of mid palate moulds

Indications of potential to cellar to achieve potential

Tannin levels a little palate drying

I should have bought more, bugger !