March 2012

China Uncorked

I have just returned from a trip to China.

Here I was hosted by my importer Ruby Red Fine Wines in Shanghai.

We travelled to several cities and did presentations of THE and flew the flag for NZ tourism. Many thanks must go to Simon Zhou and his team for organising this for me.

We did a vertical tasting of THE Sauvignon Blanc from 2004 through to the current vintage 2011. Who said Sauvignon Blanc will not age.??..This was a very interesting exercise and the forty or so participants enjoyed the challenge. The comments included characters more associated with Riesling and Chardonnay but I will leave this to Simon who is doing a full report on the evening.

This market is certainly developing fast and it was great to go out to other cities including Wuzi and Xian to educate the palates of the masses. Our presentations were held in some interesting and lavish venues and the hospitality and acceptance of our wines was second to none.

Private clients form a very important part of the portfolio of ruby Reds clients with these people very knowledgeable of wines including New Zealand’s offerings.

Another customer included the owners of two restaurants in Shanghai. “Little Huia “which is N.Z themed and “ Kakadu “ which has an Australian bent. Here the New Zealand wine offerings were very well represented.