12.20.07

Chinese wine, vintage 393 BC

Posted in Jim Boyce, Media - Chinese at 7:18 pm by admin

- By Jim Boyce

The China Daily reports that 2400-year-old wine has been discovered in Shaanxi province.

“Local archaeologists said they unearthed a sealed bronze pot containing 2 kg of red liquid during an excavation of an ancient tomb built in the Warring States Period (475 BC - 221 BC),” states the paper. “Wafts of the ancient vintage greeted the archaeologists after they opened the pot.”

How did they know it was 2,400 years old? The year was on the bottle! (Kidding)

The newspaper did not provide any tasting notes but did report that the wine has been sent to Beijing for verification. Four years ago, 2000-year-old rice wine was discovered in Xi’an. Fermented beverages appear to have been produced in China as long as 9000 years ago.

(Hat tip to Wine Business International, where I first spotted this story.)

12.10.07

Now legit to spit: Wine tasting approved as profession in China

Posted in Media - Chinese at 4:03 pm by admin

“A shortage of professional tasters in the wine brewing industry will soon be eased as China has listed wine taster as a new profession in the country’s tenth batch of new professions,” reports state media.

The article states that more than 80 percent of China’s reported 15,600 wine companies have complained about the wine taster shortage. Approving wine tasting is expected to bring standardization to the profession.

Other newly approved professions are dairy product taster, kitchen manager and “nuts cook.”