Grape expectations
Asian wine production is on the rise.
When it comes to wine, terms like “old world” and “new world” are readily understood. The former refers to Europe and the Mediterranean, the latter to Australia, South Africa, the US and South America.
However when it comes to Asia, South East Asia and the subcontinent, images of vitis vinifera don’t spring to mind. Most would assume that it’s too hot and steamy to cultivate wine grapes.
Not so, according to Denis Gastin, Asian wine expert and the man behind the fledgling Asian Wine Producers Association (AWPA) formed last year.
“Wine is now being made from locally grown grapes in 13 countries across Asia and the initial AWPA membership consists of wineries from six of them: Japan, China, Thailand, India, Indonesia and Myanmar,” says Gastin.
Unsurprisingly China, now among the top 10 wine-producing countries globally, tops the list, followed by the next largest, Japan, then by India, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia (Bali).
I’m sipping a Bali wine, a Hatten Alexandria white made from Belgia grapes, as I write. Founded by Bogus Rai Budar-sa in 1994, Hatten Wines relies on domestically grown grapes and, according to Gastin, “is producing surprisingly good wines”.
Even Cambodia, Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka are experimenting with viticulture, albeit in a minor way.
Wines from some of these regions are loosely called “new latitude wines”, in that the vines from which they are made grow outside the conventional two bands that straddle the globe roughly between latitudes 30 and 50 north and south, denoting areas long thought suitable for viticulture. Others are simply Asian wines.
But as the renowned wine writer Jancis Robinson says: “All this is changing fast, global warming and advances in refrigeration and irrigation techniques, not to mention much greater control over how and when vines grow, have opened up to the grapevine vast tracts of the world previously thought unsuitable for viticulture.”
This is especially apparent in China, where vines are planted and wine is being made in areas as remote and arid as Inner Mongolia’s Gobi Desert.
China has more area under vine, predominantly reds, than Australia and some,
China has more area under vine, predominantly reds, than Australia and some predict that within 50 years the quality of Chinese wine will rival that of Bordeaux.
like UK wine merchant Berry Brothers and Rudd, predict that within 50 years the quality of Chinese wine will rival that of Bordeaux.
The rapidly emerging Chinese middle class initially took to drinking premium Bordeaux reds with alacrity due to their perceived status, as much as to their taste. However there’s a huge domestic thirst for locally produced reds, albeit of modest quality, underpinning wine in China.
According to Gastin, the most convincing statement on where Asia stands in the world of wine today is where the international authorities rank China.
“The International Wine and Spirits Research Organisation has just rated China as the No. 1 consumer of red wine in the world, consuming 155 million nine-litre cases annually – that is up a massive 136 per cent since 2008,” he says.
But, there is more to Asian and new latitude wines than China.
Japan is emerging as a quality leader with a progressive shift to making globally benchmarked premium wines, including the popular white wine, Koshu, with its crisp acidity and low-alcohol level pairing well with sushi.
Gastin, and English Masters of Wine Lynne Sherriff and Anthony Rose, rate Koshu highly.
Gastin sees India, Thailand and Bali as the “regional novices”, and though there are many below-average wines produced in India, there are now more than a dozen of its 90-plus wineries operating to international benchmarks. Indian wineries have done very well in Europe, North Asia and the US, using Indian restaurants as an entry point to promote their wines, he says.
The term “new latitude” wines originated in Thailand, regarded as a regional trailblazer with its rigorous industry standards and improving quality wines. Also vinous expertise from aboard is at work. For example, in Bali Hatten Wines’ Australian winemaker James Kalleske is representative of the growing number of international winemakers working in the region.
There are also wineries in Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam and in Myanmar around the Inle Lake Region, which are making good wines with classic vitis vinifera European varieties. There are also embryonic, small-scale winemaking ventures in Cambodia and Sri Lanka.
Gastin sees the growing importance of Asia to the traditional wine world as significant, given the growing involvement of global brands like Remy Martin, Pernod Ricard and Domain Château Lafite Rothschild.
As to the predominant wine style, apart from China’s taste for reds, fruity crisp, fragrant, sweetish wines served cold are preferred as a match to complex spicy foods.
Perhaps, eventually, more Japanese and Thai wines will make their way throughout South East Asia.
Gastin says: “It always amazes me that, if you go to a Japanese restaurant, you can have a great selection of Japanese beers, Japanese sake and Japanese Shochu – but no Japanese wines – likewise with Thai restaurants there is Singha beer, but no wines.” But what about wine quality? While currently the overall quality of new latitude and Asian wine is comparatively low – partly because of the dominance of China and its high volume, low-cost domestic wines – things are slowly but progressively changing.
According to Gastin, “as consumers are developing palates – through local experimentation with imported wines and also through international travel – and developing the financial capacity to satisfy their palates, wine quality standards are bound to improve, especially with new and old world wine expertise and interest”.
Best leave the final word to Jancis Robinson. “I still find it hard to believe that new latitude wines will ever be seriously good, but then that’s what was said about new world wines not that long ago.”