China puts its name on the world wine map
By Clifford Coonan in Turpan, north-west China
Published: 29 August 2006

The vines are weighed down with grapes and the local wines are sweetish but surprisingly tasty, and the dry desert soil around Turpan produces serviceable cabernet sauvignon and riesling grapes.

Tea, beer, rice wine and grain alcohol may have been the traditional tipples of choice in China, but grapes to make wine have been grown along this part of the Northern Silk Road for more than 2,000 years, and are making a comeback. More

March 29, 2006
This one turned up the other day. Enotrians - The Wine Lovers

Enotrians ('wine lovers') renamed their kingdom 'Italia'.
(ANSA) - Palinuro, March 20 - A very rare example of surviving pre-Greek settlement in southern Italy is to be excavated and explored. The site, at Molpa in the hills above Palinuro south of Naples, is believed to contain the remains of a large village of the Enotrians, the earliest known inhabitants of Calabria and southern Campania. The Greeks who settled across southern Italy from 700BC to create Magna Graecia had an idealised vision of the Enotrians ("wine lovers") as coming from the Eden-like land of Arcadia.
In reality, they probably came from eastern Europe and moved down into a large swathe of southern Italy from 1000 BC.
Most histories of Italy, based on ancient Greek texts, portray southern Italy as virgin territory.
Recent discoveries about the Enotrians have exploded this myth.
A dig at another Enotrian site, in Campania, has uncovered evidence that the Greek colonists owed their wealth to exploiting prosperous native villages. The settlement, on a hill called Timpone della Motta, had a large necropolis and a monumental sanctuary.
The finds from huts, graves and the sanctuary of the Enotrians point to the organized production of bronze cauldrons, decorated pots made on the potter's wheel, olive oil and wine long before the arrival of the Greeks. The Greek colony that came later, Sybaris, became a byword for sensual excess and has given us the word sybaritic. One of the last kings of the Enotrians, Italo or Italos, is said to have changed his kingdom's name from Enotria to Italia - the name eventually adopted for the whole peninsula.

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Found this report on 3rd February, 2006. It seems credible enough. If you need advice about the Chinese market let me know because I have spent about 8 years there and have plenty of reference material.

Foreign wine will be illegal without Chinese marks

Date:2006-1-6 11:42:00 browsers: 466
From: china wine online Author: by zhangping
Alcoholic Drink Circulating Managing Regulation has been carried out. For this reason, reporters have come to interview Liu Fei, the director of alcohol management office, Hunan Province.

Liu Fei said that it was very important to strengthen the alcohol management, for it could be good to Chinese economical developing and people’s health.

According to the scale of the regulation, Mr. Liu explained all kinds of alcoholic drinks, such as fermented wines, distilled wine and other drinks which contain alcohol. Also, the regulation is suited with millet wine sold in all restaurants because it contains alcohol more than 10%.

The regulation restricts the sale of alcohol to minors, only adults can buy and sell alcohol. Public consumption places, such as bars, restaurants are forbidden to sell any alcoholic drinks to minors. Any one who does this will be punished by economical methods.

Liu Fei confirmed, “Foreign wines without Chinese characters will be treated as false wines.” It is forbidden to distribute, retail and ship such wines. Without quality grades, producing places and the date or winemaking practices, such foreign wines have the possibility to misled the Chinese consumers, so it is illegal to sell them.

Once the goods were over the quality assurance period, they must be taken off the shelves. Although spirits will be better and better as time goes by, beers and wines all have quality assurance period. Keeping wine too long is not so well as people concerned. If sellers sell wines over the quality assurance period, the wines will be confiscated by alcohol management department and the sellers will be fired a sum of money.

From the USDA website

Keep an Eye to Government Policy

China's government tends to support the domestic production of alcoholic beverages processed from food products that are not needed to feed its population. Consequently, depending on the success of its agricultural sector over the years, favored products have waxed and waned. U.S. wine exporters wanting to enter this market should be aware of some unexpected consequences from this government manipulation of beverage production. Whatever the drink favored by government policy, the Chinese people have demanded and received well-priced, high-quality varieties, with alcohol content adjusted to popular taste.


Cheers