A Word to the Wine Lover

Buying wine in China can be difficult.  It is not readily carried in "Liquors Shops" nor are there any beautiful wineries to visit, or even and artisan's boutique to visit and sample some delicious cheese along the way.  No.  Most of the wine sits expectantly at random convenience/grocery stores with labels boasting names like: Great Wall and Dynasty.  With such grand names, a connoisseur may be led to believe that they are of great quality.  But where I ask you is the information about the precious grape? where one is used to finding such information are some indistinguishable characters instead.  Buying and drinking wine is Russian Roulette and the only way to know is to pay your quay and hope for the best.  Well, we tried the White "Chardonnay" Dynasty last night and...well...it straight up tasted like someone added sugar to petroleum and bottled it up.  As one of the girls pointed out, the label says Dy-NASTY, that should have been the tip off.  Now we know.

Having travelled to this part of China once before, Wuhan in the Hubei province, I was aware of their wine situation and had planned make good use of the fine wines that the Okanagan has to offer.  With my parents, and many good friends and family along the way, one might say I sipped my way through August; nearly to excess.  I fell a bit more in love with the Chardonnay's than I ever have before, I hear they are very hot this year, and there was a Mission Hill Merlot that curled my toes.  All of this wine consuming was done in the spirit that China never has been, and I imagine never will be, present on the world wine stage.  Last night I was reminded that this is incredibly true.

Although there are "Western" shopping stores available in Wuhan, they are an ordeal to get to.  There is one called Metro but it is about a 45 minute cab ride, and otherwise I would have no means of getting there.  It is a copy cat Costco and DOES sell wine from other countries.  Next time I will stock up on some beautiful New Zealand or Californian wine, and maybe, just maybe, I'll catch a glimpse of that Merlot that I left so far behind me in Canada.  Wine country - I miss you, until next summer.