Tasting Tsunami: 20,000 Wines in One Week

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If you think it’s difficult deciding what wine to pick from a CHEERS shop, imagine needing a full week to sift through more than 20,000 bottles. But that kind sums up Tang Jiu Hui (糖酒会) aka the China Food & Drinks Fair, the country’s oldest and biggest booze event, held last week in Chengdu.

This is where the trade gathers to sniff and sip, wheel and deal, sell and buy: wines from Argentina to Australia, from Chile to China, from Chardonnay to Shiraz, from centuries-old producers to brand new ones, you can find almost anything if you look hard enough.

Photo credit: Jim Boyce

The three-day fair is at the exhibition center but buyers and sellers show up four or five days early to visit thousands of brands with tens of thousands of wines set up in hotels across Chengdu. This can be overwhelming and intense and boozy but also quite insightful.

This is a part of the business many consumers don’t know about. But it makes one appreciate companies like CHEERS, where due diligence means only a few of the many wines considered by management and at the franchise owner tastings end up on shop shelves.

Photo credit: Jim Boyce

Tang Jiu Hui includes everything good and bad about the wine business. It includes famous brands, high-value wines and new discoveries—Azerbaijan had a major presence this year.

And it includes “almost famous” brands, where producers mimic a well-known name or design, such as France’s Lafite or Australia’s Penfolds, in a way that may well trick consumers.

Photo credit: Jim Boyce

It’s also about people trying to dump subpar wine at premium prices and even selling fake wine. (The authorities shut down at least one booth selling illegal stuff on the very first day.)

Photo credit: Jim Boyce

Wine is already pretty daunting with all its grape varieties, vintages, styles, producers and regions. Going to Tang Jiu Hui is like being hit with a wine tsunami.

But it’s also exhilarating to find new special wines and even to run into old friends. This year that included Rudi Delport, who supplies CHEERS with products from major South African producer KWV, including their three-year-old Brandy, Cape Tawny, Cape Ruby and a few more. We had a chat and a few sips together, and then both waded back into that week of boozy organized chaos.

GIF credit: GIPHY

Original by Jim Boyce, Grape Wall of China 葡萄围城

Tap here to learn more about grapes and wine-drinking.

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