China Ningxia wines tops French Bordeaux in Beijing wine challenge...

In a blind winetasting competition in Beijing on December 14, five wines from Bordeaux and five wines from Ningxia - all priced in the range 200 - 500 yuan (RMB) - were wrapped in black cloth, tagged with a number, and served to ten French and ten Chinese wine judges. When the results were announced: the top four wines were Chinese!

The Ningxia vs Bordeaux Challenge was organised by Jim Boyce with website TasteV, wine club Zun, and Grape Wall contributors.

The wines were opened, tested for quality, bagged and tagged, in the presence of several reporters, under the supervision of Philip Osenton, who works with distributor Globus and is former head sommelier at Ritz London and restaurant manager for the Savoy. He and others, including the media, witnessed computation of the scores.

“Sacrilège,” screamed the headline of the French business daily, La Tribune. But the top French dailies, Le Monde and Le Figaro, seemed to suppress the news, quite understandably. The people have enough to worry about.

OK, French wines have been beaten with some regularity ever since the Judgment of Paris on May 24, 1976, when, to the utter and never fully digested shock of the French wine establishment, a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon and a Chardonnay beat their Bordeaux counterparts - and put California on the international wine map.

The judges were asked to rank the wines from first to tenth based on quality. First place was worth one point, second place worth two points, and so on. The wines with the lowest total scores were the winners. The judges had spent 40 minutes tasting and ranking the wines and another 30 minutes discussing them.

The top five:

1. Grace Vineyard Chairman’s Reserve 2009                  34 points  (RMB 488)

2. Silver Heights The Summit 2009                                  42 points  (RMB 416)

3. Helan Qing Xue Jia Bei Lan Cabernet Dry Red 2009       44 points (was RMB220, now pending)

4. Grace Vineyard Deep Blue 2009                                  46 points  (RMB 288)

5. Barons de Rothschild Collection Saga Medoc 2009          54 points  (RMB 350)

The Chinese judges:

• Ma Huiqin, professor at China University of Agriculture and wine marketing expert (head judge)
• Frankie Zhao, owner of Pro-Wine Consultancy
• Fiona Sun, senior editor at China edition of Revue du Vin
• Jin Yang, wine teacher who spent five years studying in Bordeaux wine programs
• John Gai, of wine distributor and bar operation Palatte

The French judges:

• Nicolas Carre, sommelier and wine consultant (head judge)
• Jerome Sabate, long involved as wine maker with Dragon Seal in Beijing
• Nathalie Sibillet, oenologist, journalist and teacher
• Thomas Briollet, seven years experience in China wine distribution
• Edouard Kressman, wine maker with experience in Bordeaux, California and Argentina

Of course, wine competitions can be criticized. The French wines were handicapped by an import tax of 48% (another detail of why China has a huge trade surplus with the rest of the world). But then, Chinese wines got hit with consumption and value-added taxes that reduced the gap to 20%, according to Boyce. And the most expensive Bordeaux retailed for RMB 350 while the winning Ningxia retailed for RMB 488. Quite a price difference.

For now, the big takeaway is that Chinese wines have again - not for the first time, shown they can compete on a global level. The reality check: these wines represent a smidgeon of the China market and the industry as a whole still has a long way to go.

But who could have imagined a few years ago spending US$77 on a bottle of good Chinese wine to be shared over a romantic dinner? The French must have had similar thoughts about California wines in the aftermath of May 24, 1976.

More upheaval in the old world order...