Yesterday, “First Hundred-Yuan Wines at Home and Abroad Blind Tasting Masters” was concluded successfully. After the blind tasting and rigorous and meticulous score collection of the professional jury composed of 15 experts and 5 dealers and group purchasers from mainland China and Hong Kong and Taiwan, the much-anticipated competition result was released finally.            

Products comprehensively ranking Top 5 will obtain the certificate of “Recommended Buy” issued by the sponsor while the wine comprehensively ranking first will obtain the honor of “Best Buy” issued by the sponsor. Finally, Changyu Dionysus Drunken Cabernet Sauvignon Dry Red Wine won the champion.

20 judges including Li Hua, lifetime honorary president of College of Enology of Northwest A&F University, Fang Dafang, judge of Concours Mondial de Bruxelles and wine critic from Taiwan, Qi Shaoren, wine writer and critic from Taiwan, Tang Laoya, famous wine writer and critic from Hong Kong, and Jin Yang, Feng Weidong, Wang Ziyi, Li Bing, etc. agreed with the result. Li Bing said: “When the blind tasting bags are muffled up, the professionals get rid of the preconception, sometimes the best wine is around us.”

Products in Hundred-Yuan Price Zone Popular in Chinese Market Competing, Changyu Winning

In many domestic blind tasting competitions, this is the first time in this industry to collect all these 110 customer-friendly wines with retail price between 60 Yuan and 120 Yuan in one competition. All participating expert judges took the scoring of this competition seriously. 

In this blind tasting competition, the sponsor also chose to purchase 110 wines, including 20 domestic wines and 90 imported wines, from international stores. In the domestic wines, there were major brands of domestic wines like Changyu, Great Wall, Weilong, Dynasty, etc. as well as niche brands. In the imported wines, the sponsor chose the best sellers in Chinese market like Penfolds, J.P.CHENET, Yellow Tail, Casillero del Diablo, Carlo Ross, Jacob's Creek, etc.

The scoring criteria of this competition was that hundred-mark system was adopted in the whole course, with the scoring of expert judge group accounting for 50%, that of folk judge group (representatives of professional wine dealers) accounting for 30% and the rest 20% decided by the retail price of the product, one price level for every 5 Yuan, different score for each price level, and the final score was multiplied by 20% to obtain the score.

Three scores were added as the composite score, wine products ranking Top 5 in composite score would obtain the Certificate of Honor and trophy of “Recommended Buy” while the champion was awarded the honor of “Best Buy”.

With perfect scoring criteria and rigorous score collection, Changyu Dionysus Drunken Cabernet Sauvignon Dry Red Wine from China topped over 100 wines at home and abroad with composite score of 85.72 to be the champion of First Hundred-Yuan Wine at Home and Abroad Blind Tasting Competition with the result of comprehensively ranking first.

The second to fifth were respectively LOTENGO MALBEC 2012 (83.77, from Mendoza, Argentina), CA'ERNESTO DELLE DOLOMITI 2012 (83.50, from Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy), Santa Rita 120 Merlot 2012 (82.25, from Centray Valley, Chile) and melior 2011 (81.77, from Duoro, Spain).

“Unexpected Achievement” in the Eyes of Judges

In the chat before the competition, all judges were talking about that in such ratings of mass wines in hundred-yuan price zone, the wines with distinctive aroma and simple and rich flavor from Australia, America, Chile and other producing areas should have an advantage, in which Penfolds, Yellow Tail, Carlo Ross should have more advantages.

The judges also basically reached agreement that they would not require the wines in hundred-yuan price zone with the requirements for grand chateaux, smelling good, tasting good and suitable for the mass consumers would become the main evaluation criteria.

When the result was released, it was unexpected that Changyu wine from Mount Tianshan, Xinjiang, China was the champion and defeated the most powerful brands in the world.

“It is really an unexpected achievement, and I must recommend this domestic wine to my booze.” Li Bing, the judge, said.

“I once felt that with the same price, the imported wine would be better than domestic wine. However, after I participated in this fair and transparent blind tasting competition and obtained this result, I will notice the good domestic wines around me.” Chen Ruidong, the representative of professional dealers, president of Chengdu Liangjiu Oak Barrel Cellar, said.  

Tang Laoya

It is reported that Dionysus Drunken, the champion, is a new product released by Changyu Group in this March, whose retail price is about 68 Yuan. The grapes are from Changyu Xinjiang Grape Base, which is located in the beautiful northern slope of Mount Tianshan in Xinjiang with typical arid desert climate in mid temperate zone, with high effective accumulative temperature, abundant sunshine and large temperature difference between day and night as well as the annual total rainfall of 110-200 mm are good for the growth and development of grapes. The soil in this area is sandy loam with weak alkalinity and the soil layer is deep, which are favorable for the grape plants to absorb more nutrients.             

Speaking with Facts, Choosing Wine with No Prejudice

In the profound adjustment period of the industry, the wine consumption transfers from the original “high-end” to family and individual consumption to face the mass market. However, facing products of so many varieties, the common consumers still face the difficulty in wine selection and how to choose wine.

Qi Shaoren

Wang Ziyi, WSET certified instructor and German official wine lecturer, thought: “Now many consumers tend to purchase wines from international stores, so the wines used in this blind tasting masters are purchased from the international stores, it is very reasonable.”

The result of this blind tasting competition of wines in hundred-yuan price zone undoubtedly provides a conductive advice for the mass consumers, with the advice from blind tasting of the masters, speak with facts to guide the consumers to choose wine and remove their prejudice for domestic wines.

Fang Dafang

“Such blind tasting competition shall be often held, and several wine dealer judges and mass consumer judges can be invited to taste. Without preconceptions and speak with the results.” Chen Ruidong said.

The sponsor said that some blind tasting masters for mid-end and high-end wines would be held in the future,N the result of which was used to measure the quality. The mass consumption market of wine surely would greet a new upsurge.