China's maturing taste for the global wine industry

China’s bourgeoning wine industry gained kudos as a team of three Chinese mainland students performed well against international peers in a renowned tasting competition at the famous Chateau Lafite Rothschild in Bordeaux, France.

The competition, known as the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup, is one of the most prestigious wine contests for college students.

Eight teams took part in the competition’s grand final, which comprised a multiple-choice test on Bordeaux history and trivia, followed by a blind tasting in which participants were questioned about the grape varieties, vintage and the appellation.

Hong Kong Science and Technology University and Zhejiang Gongshang University were the only two Chinese teams to qualify for both this and last year's finals.

The top prize went to the University of Edinburgh, which was making its first appearance in the final. Yale Law School was second, followed by CentraleSupelec from France. The three other teams competing were Harvard University, Oxford University and Universite Paris-Dauphine.

First introduced in 2002 by the Commanderie du Bontemps de Medoc, one of the oldest and biggest French wine appreciation guilds, the contest was a national event for wine societies in France before it opened up to the world in 2011.

Fan Lina, the only Chinese judge on the panel, said: "The Chinese team gave a solid performance in the question part, ranking No 2 after the first half of the test, which was very impressive.

“But I was not surprised they lost big points in the blind tasting section, as the wines tried were mainly from high-end Left Bank Bordeaux chateaus. The average retail price for those wines in the Chinese market would be above 3,000 yuan ($467) a bottle, and it is unlikely that Chinese students would have had an opportunity to sample such wines.”

Emmanuel Cruse, the world grand master of the Commanderie du Bontemps who led the judging team of 21 members for the panel, said the standard was higher than expected.

“It’s become very difficult to find suitable questions because the students have very good wine knowledge generally speaking, and every year we must find questions that can challenge them,” he added.

On the performance of the Chinese students, Cruse noted that they were improving each year and said he would not be surprised to see them in the top three within the next three to five years.

“They were very close to being No 1 after the first part of the test, but they missed out on the beginning of the red wine tasting, and I think it’s only a question of practice and being able to taste.”

Eric de Rothschild, chairman of Chateau Lafite Rothschild, said there was an element of luck involved, but that experience is important.

To become better tasters, Rothschild’s advice to the Chinese students is to “drink, drink, and drink”. “Drink as much as you can especially with a good bottle," he added.

The team captain of Zhejiang Gongshang University, 20-year-old Li Qi said: “Due to our limited access to high-quality wines we focused our efforts on the theory part, and we were pleased that the result of the question section was in line with our expectations.”

Li admitted that blind tasting is a shortcoming for Chinese teams, and hoped that Chinese universities could allocate more funds to facilitate wine appreciation.

Last year the Chinese team were also leading in the question category, but failed to follow on and succeed in the tasting round.

Fan attributed the Chinese students' lack of experience in fine wine to their overall result.

“There is no secret to blind tasting, and all it takes is hands-on experience and a strong memory. But if you have never sampled a certain wine, the chance of getting it right in the competition is really slim,” she added.

Links between Left Bank Bordeaux and China will be developed further, as Fan said she is planning to bring the owners of the chateau to visit Chinese university wine clubs,which would allow students opportunities to taste the premier wines.