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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Chinese wines, best of the bad?
Occasionally I pick up some random off the shelf supermarket red wines. Whats the best of the usual selection? I know none of it is going to taste like home, but which one is least likely to put me in the hospital?
There is a Beijing red wine I think it good, the one thing with wines here it says on the bottle in english that it is made from grapes. Most other alcohol like whiskey will take your toenails off.
I actually think the Chinese people like good grape wine!
If you leave a bottle of Mogao wine open for a while so it can breathe, you will find that once the harsh taste of alcohol has gone it is not too bad. I also tried Wolf-berry wine which has a sharp taste but is quite nice.
for the price, the bottles of wolfberry wine that you can find at basically any grocery store is ok.
I miss my good reds and cheeky whites from home but I don't miss the prices I paid. I bought wine by the carton In Australia and could buy good quaffing wine for about $5.50 a bottle on hot specials but generally $12 - $20 a bottle was the going rate. The Great Wall red here is just fine. At 38RMB a bottle it's darn fine value and a glass of that while you are preparing your meal or sitting in front of the computer doing a lesson plan or answering questions on echina cities will get you mellowed in no time. There's another one I buy, name escapes me at the moment and I just threw the empty out, but it's ChengYu or something like that. About 40RMB. It's quite good.
I find the Chinese reds priced from 38RMB upwards are okay to drink but they do have a morning kick in them if you imbibe too much - like the whole bottle. Dry mouth and a dull throb behind the temples is an after effect so I recommend a bottle of water by the bedside if you have staggered into the cot.
Seriously, the wines are fine. Also look at some of the Australian wines - you can buy them in China cheaper than you you can buy them in Australia and I haven't figured out how they do that yet. As a result I do let loose and buy one of them for special occasions and they are priced around the 50RMB mark and are very good. Some of the Californian wines are keenly priced and are nice on the palate as well as are a couple of the South American wines.
Honestly, the range is huge as are the prices. Some of the prices are ridiculous and probably aimed at the really wealthy Chinese whom I doubt would know a lot about wine. They just go on price and would buy the most expensive to look good.
Experiment, enjoy, stick to the ones you take a liking to.