A Poem of Wine

Although recently the weather was not quite pleasant in Bordeaux, last night there was still a moment where the moonlight was bright and clear that you could even see your shadow on the moonlit floor. What a peaceful image! It was reminiscent of an ancient Chinese poem <Libation of Solitary Under the Moonlight>.

So here comes the themes of the week: Moonlight, shadow and wine.

What we are going to "taste" now is a poem about wine, wrote by a Chinese poet of Tang Dynasty, Li Bai (701-762). The scene was carefully designed yet so natural, with a fascinating environment and atmosphere, you can probably enjoy it even if there is quite a solitude between the lines…

Li Bai has strong political ambitions while contempt for wealth and rank. As an idealist, he often dissatisfied with reality. However, what a great poet does with a frustrated career and disillusion with life, is to drinks his sorrows away and chants verse as a way of self-distraction. 

<Libation of Solitary Under the Moonlight>

Among the flowers there is a jug of wine, I drink alone without a friend.

By raising the cup, I invite the bright moon;

Here is my shadow reflected before me, now we are three.

The moon, however, knows nothing about drinking.

And the shadow can only follow me in vain.

Nevertheless, I still regard them as partners for the nonce.

By the joy of frolic, let's celebrate the good time of spring night!

When I sing, the moon lingers around me;

When I dance, my deformed shadow is wandering.

We share the joy as we are sober;

While getting tipsy we separated from one another. 

Henceforward, I would like to go together with the moon;

Roaming on the distant Milky Way.

Well, if you happen to have to spend your Christmas and New Year holidays alone, this one is for you. Not the sad and solitary part, but the romantic imagination accompanied by wine. Also, we do believe the translation can always be improved, so any comments would be appreciated and you are welcome to share your thoughts with us!

An interesting reading experience

Hey, guys Merry CHRISTMAS !! 
Today we would like to change our blog subject from wine news or wine tasting to some interesting comic books about wine.

First of all, I have some questions for you: Have you ever felt a little bit hard to remember those names of the grape varieties, wine regions or been confused by the names of Chateaux? If the answer is “yes”, then I’ve got some idea of reading which will probably make it easier for you.

So here are my recommended reading list: A manga “The Drops of God” and a comic book named “The Chateaux of Bordeaux”.

By reading these two interesting (series of) books, you will not be boring or confused about those wine-related terms or names any more!

Now let me introduce a little bit of them...

The manga The Drops of God is about Kanzaki Shizuku, (son of Mr. Yutaka Kanzaki, who was a world-famous wine critic but has recently passed away) who is having an intense competition with Issei Tomine (the foster son of Kanzaki, also a renowned young wine critic). They should find out 13 wines (twelve Apostles and Drops of God that Kanzaki has described in his will) in order to win over the right of inheritance.

Why this book ? Because this book describe lots of details of the famous wine regions and chateaux like wine prices,grape varieties and also food matching!
OK!! Don’t hesitate to GET TO BUY ONE “The drops of god” you wanna get one more !!

Another on is Chateaux Bordeaux by Eric Corbeyran and Sébastien Portet (a.k.a. Espé). It is a very interesting comic book which introduce lots of the Chateaux of Bordeaux.

Wine, as the author described, they can not only talk and shout, but sometimes they can also whisper in your ear!I think that is one of the reasons why we are so addicted to the wine, because actually they are alive.If you are interested in the Bordeaux wine, why not chose this book for improving your wine knowledge? 

OK guys, TAKE ACTION QUICKLY & HAPPY READING!

Let's talk about how to do wine business in China.

Today, I’m not gonna talk about wine tasting techniques in general, but to give you some ideas about how to do business in Chinese wine market. When I mention about Chinese wine market, I know some of you still believe Chinese people are sort of mixing Petrus with Coca cola. Yeah that was what they’ve done. But whether you like it or not, now China ranks as 5^th biggest wine importing country in the world with an annual growth of 30% in value. For most wine professionals, flying to Shanghai or Hong Kong is just like flying to New York or London. We even had an insight joke: The wine professionals are either in China or on their way to China. Here I’m going to give you the very general picture (based on my personal experience in China) about how to develop your business in China step by step.

When you are selling wine in China, firstly please understand why Chinese consumers drink wine, because wine is definitely not a daily drink in China. But 90% of consumers are drinking wines during special occasions. For example during holidays or parties, 94% of consumers drink wine because they believe that it is better to health compare with Chinese “Bai Jiu”. Therefore, a wine in China is considered as a healthy and social drink. In this case, those methods you are using to target European consumers would not work in China. Because they don’t care about grape variety, US oak or French oak, biodynamic or organic, they just don’t care. Simply just be social and be healthy, and give them a story to talk about during dinner and that’s it.

Who are you selling to? Not everyone in China could afford wines, because they are extremely expensive. Don’t be surprised to find a vin de pays Merlot sold at 40 euros in China, as our average salary is only 300 euros per month. Some of you may have started doing marketing research, customer surveys or segmentations or lifestyle analysis. But they are way too complicated. We say that in China there are only two kinds of consumers: Consumers who pay their bills and consumers who don’t pay their bills. For consumers who don’t pay their bills, 99% are government officials and politicians. They don’t care about taste, all they pursue is price and reputation. If you are a premium wine producer, please spell out your rarity, your heritage and your exclusiveness. And be simple, please do not tell boring history, even for wine professionals these histories are just boring. All your need to do is storytelling; give them a premium story to talk during dinner, and make sure your wine would be a good sample to contribute their self-esteem. 

But for the people who really pay their bills, they are the so-called ordinary consumers. In order to reach them you need to ask yourself a question: where do you sell your wine? More precisely, are you gonna sell on trade or off trade? The Chinese wine report said that the on trade sales and off trade sales are almost equal. That made me quite surprised when I first read it. Because I said that most wines are considered as social drinks instead of drinking alone. But why the on trade sales and off trade sales can be equal? Please don’t forget about holiday sales, because 60% of wine sale in China are generated only during two holidays: The mid-autumn day and spring festival. Well, some consumers like you and me may only buy one or two bottles to give them to friends as gifts, but the government and companies also need to give gifts to their partners and their employees etc. In this case, a bottle of wine which is healthy and fashionable, will definitely be the top of the list. And by the way, they are purchasing wine on a very large volume, actually they are the key players to drive off trade sales up high. So when you are planning to ship your containers to China, please make sure they are gonna be on those shelves before holidays.

Finally, hope this article may help you and thanks for reading.

Visit chateaux of Pessac-Léognan

Today, we have another visiting and tasting notes to share with you from the two of my favorite wineries that I've been to last week.

There is a very famous chateau of Grand Cru Classé De Graves in Pessac-Léognan--- Chateau Smith-Haut-Lafite. Pessac-léognan known for its white wine. Today, we have tasted SMITH HAUT-LAFITTE BLANC 2008 (90 % sauvignon blanc / 5 % sauvignon gris / 5 % sémillon). This silky-texture wine has a nose of citrus, sweet melon with a hint of grapefruit, lemon peel and orange peel.

Opposite of it, is the famous hot springs spa Les Sources De Caudalie. Caudalie has been engaged in a special extract of grape seed polyphenols (polyphénols de pépins de raisin) and stable technology patents.

After that we visited the Chteau De Fieuzal, also a Grand Cru Classé De Graves, we visited the clean wine cellar and new investment in the modernization of insulation cask. Finally taste Chateau De Fieuzal 2009 red wine（2,5%Petit verdot, 33%Merlot,60% Cabernet sauvignon, 4,5%Cabernet franc).

After the visiting, I'm psychologically fully content, that's for sure, and now it's time to satisfy my taste buds and stomach. Bon Appétit !

An afternoon in Sauternes

Let's have some visual sweetness first! This typical golden, shining liquid in a cosy tasting room with fireplace, everything looks just perfect with sunshine. This is Château Guiraud 2006 Sauternes (65% of Sémillon & 35%  of Sauvignon) served with foie gras, which you can probably see on the table through my glass. Well structured, full-bodied with a little bit spicy, it's definitely a joyful experience!

 

Château Guiraud, the 1er Grand Cru Classé Sauternes, was awarded Organic Cultivation Certification in 2011. As you can see in the above picture, the small house set up in front of the Château called Insect hotel, built as a nest of insects. It is to protect and encouraging insect pollination in order to create a well-balanced ecosystem for vineyard.

After leaving Château Guiraud, we took five minutes drive to Château Suduiraut, another 1er Grand Cru Classé of Sauternes. While we followed the instruction and walked through the wine cellar with some working area, there was a beautiful garden came into view. Planted with various kinds of fruits and flowers, this garden has been designed by André Le Nôtre, who was famous for his great work of the park of Château de Versailles.

 
 

Inside the Château, I was really impressed by this magnificent tasting room. The indoor light was soft yet dazzling, thanks to the warm color of Sauternes. Somehow I felt like I was an insect sealed in amber! 

The wine tastes undoubtedly great, although the sweetness was somewhat beyond my imagination. With 90% of Sémillon and 10% of Sauvignon, we got a mouthful of aromatic, rich-texture Sauternes, our palates were pleased again, so were our eyes...

Prelude

Hello! Welcome to Full-Bodied Wine Lovers' blog.

We take this place as our playground. Here, we may put some notes of our wine tasting, wine and food matching experiments (yes, sometimes it could be…), our Château visiting or anything we found interesting during our adventure in the big big world of wine.

Voilà, hope you enjoy with us and may WINE be with you, too!