Battle Of The Bottles

Twelve wines and six competing pairs — who will come out on top: China or Bordeaux? Wine critic James Suckling reports from a blind tasting in Hong Kong with a surprising result.

- James Suckling

Is China capable of producing world-class wines? Last month, I – along with a small group of luminaries, from the head of a major property company to an Oscar-winning movie director – attended a blind tasting event in Hong Kong to find out.

The tasting, organised by Canadian businessman Adam Janikowski, pitted six Chinese wines against six from Bordeaux, including great names such as Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Pichon Longueville Lalande, and Château Pichon-Longueville Baron. The wines were served in six pairs: one red from France and another from China. The 16 tasters voted for their favorite wine in each pair, and China won four out of the six pairs and tied the other two. Bordeaux failed to win a single pairing.

“I had no idea that China made such outstanding wines,” said a Chinese-Canadian woman, who admitted that she’d preferred the Chinese red in every flight.