-Blind tasting of Old and New World wines

WINEONLINE WINE CLUB WINE TASTING 

Maxime LU / WINEONLINE WINE CLUB (BEIJING)

Along with the popularization of wine, the concept of the “New World” and the “ Old World” has been referred to in different wine events or media frequently. The “New World” represents those new wine-producing countries such as the United States, Australia, Chili and South Africa, while the “Old World” represents those traditional wine-producing countries such as French, Italy and Spanish.

The “New World” formed a strong force opposed to the “Old World” as it grows up. Those two Worlds faced fierce competition in the target market.

The “New World” takes the significant market share in mid-range and low end market with scientific brewing and various brewing concept. Furthermore, it gradually penetrates into high end market through some high standard market behaviors.

In contrast to the “ New World”, the “Old World” has the competitive advantage in high end market with profound culture, technology accumulation and humanity idea and also gradually recovers parts of mid-range and low end market during communication and merging.

For the sake of fairness, this time we will compare the “New world” and the “Old World” with the form. of blind tasting.

I chose five kinds of wines from 5 wine-producing countries, including Old World wines from Italy and France and New World wines from Argentina, Australia and China.

Specific wines are as follows:

Wine 1：Callia Alta Shiraz-Malbec 2007, Argentina
Wine 2：DANZANTE MERLOT,DELA SICILIA 2004, Australia
Wine 3：PICQUE CAILLOU,La Reserve 2003,Pessac-Leognan, France
Wine 4：ROSEMOUNT HILL of GOLD,Cabernet Sauvignon,2004, Austalia
Wine 5：ZhongFa Zhuangyuan(中法庄园 )，Marselan, dry red wine,2004，China

The vote result of blind tasting shows that New World wine has an absolute advantage, which is the same as the result of the Paris Wine Tasting of 1976.

Wine 1:  20 scores    (market price, <100 yuan）

Wine 2:  10 scores    (market price, 100yuan~200yuan）

Wine 3:  20 scores    (market price, 200yuan~300yuan）

Wine 4:  22 scores    (market price, 200yuan~300yuan）

Wine 5:  26 scores    (market price, 300yuan~400yuan）

Wine 1 from Argentina with the lowest market price received the same score as wine 3 from France, while wine 2 from Italy didn’t meet with great favor, although its price is higher than wine 1. Apparently, the public prefers the flavor of New World wine.

Especially, ZhongFaZhuangyuan(中法庄园)，Marselan, dry red wine,2004 stand out above the rest in this blind tasting with its unique style. and standardization of French vineyards, although it comes from young vines. I always think that Marselan’s development in China should not stop so soon. However, ZhongFaZhuangyuan(中法庄园) is on sale right now.
My tasting notes are as follows:

Wine 1：Callia Alta Shiraz-Malbec 2007, Argentina
Deep black red color, intense aromas of blueberries, raspberries with sweet candy flavor; good mouth-feel, medium body, fine tannin but a little bit weak, well-balanced, short-to-medium length. It’s a favorable dry red wine with excellent price-performance ratio.

Wine 2：DANZANTE MERLOT,DELA SICILIA 2004, Australia

Deep black red color; with a nose of gravy, almond and cranberries, as well as the flavor of blueberries cheese; medium body, wood-flavor, well-balanced, tannin is a little bit rough; obvious acid especially in after taste. This dry red wine coming from Sicilia is worth the price, but its unique aromas, not well-balancing and obvious acid are not favored. 

Wine 3：PICQUE CAILLOU,La Reserve 2003,Pessac-Leognan, France

Deep ruby red color; exquisite blackcurrant aromas with fungus, dead leaves; exquisite tannin with medium power, medium-to-long length with herbal medicine breath, the typical character of Bordeaux

Wine 4：ROSEMOUNT HILL of GOLD,Cabernet Sauvignon,2004, Austalia
Deep black red color; intense aromas of blackcurrant, vanilla and cinnamon with typical spicy flavor; semi-sweet mouth-feel, medium-to-full body, medium-to-strong tannin, harmonious-balanced, medium-to-long length. It’s an Australia wine that shows the strength of typical characters of Cabernet Sauvignon.

 Wine 5：ZhongFaZhuangyuan(中法庄园)，Marselan, dry red wine,2004，China

Deep ruby red color; intense aromas of longan and blackberries; sweet mouth-feel, light to medium body, light to medium tannin, holly leaf-flavor with a little bit hot after taste. Its distinctive breath is favored.