The Sweet Taste of Success

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Like many oenologists, Schuster believes that western China and Asia Minor were the historic home of winemaking. "Wine is a natural part of Asian heritage," he says. "It's not superimposed. What is superimposed on Asia is the fear of wine." Wu agrees, and when she's not busy trying to uncover the latest case of wine shenanigans, she spends most of her time looking for ways to make what's still considered an lite foreign beverage less alien to Chinese drinkers. "If I wrote wine-tasting notes like Robert Parker," she says, "no one would understand. So instead I tell stories that link wine with traditional Chinese culture. People like fireworks on Chinese New Year, so I'll suggest a sparkling wine. For Mid-Autumn Festival, I'll write about how to pair a wine with moon cakes."

Inspired by enthusiasts like Wu, Chinese are becoming increasingly aware of fine wine. Xia Guangli, chief winemaker at Qingdao Huadong Winery Co., which was established in 1985, has noticed a sharp increase in Chinese appreciation of wine. "In the beginning, Huadong's wines were all exported to the U.S. and Australia. Now, we sell almost exclusively to Chinese customers," she says. "They get more sophisticated every year. Now, when we have a vintage that tastes different from the previous year's, they'll call me up and say, 'What's wrong? This tastes different from the 2000.'"

For the most part, though, the Chinese are still buying mediocre wines from larger companies. "They are teaching people to tolerate bad wine and that makes it a little more difficult to sell the good stuff," says Xia. "Some of my distributors have told me they've been under pressure not to sell our wine. The big producers are worried that if people have an opportunity to taste our wines, they'll realize how much better we are."

For now, the priority is simply to get China to drink more wine, says He Wei, a distributor at Suntime International, a Xinjiang-based, 7-year-old winemaker with the biggest vineyard in China. "Then, when the market is more mature, we will think about promoting the taste," He adds. Last summer, Suntime held a national campaign called "Popularize Wines Among Common People." Consumers were encouraged to mix dry wines with fresh fruit juice or soft drinks to make them more suitable for the Chinese palate. Western wine lovers may cringe at the idea of adulterating wine in such a way, but "it's a basic human taste, to like sweet things," says Schuster. "In Spain, you drink bad red wine with sugary soda and you call it sangria. Nobody points a finger at the Spanish for that."

Then again, part of wine's appeal around the world is the aura of sophistication it confers upon the would-be connoisseur. Thus, on the mainland, a whole new phenomenon is emerging: the Chinese wine snob. Faye Liang, a 32-year-old Beijing marketing executive with a passion for Australian wine, still isn't ready to buy Chinese. "If you can get a pretty good imported table wine for eight bucks," she sniffs, "why do you want to take the risk to buy a little cheaper but much worse quality local wine?" For now, at least, "made in China" still lacks a certain je ne sais quoi.