Grape Press: Morocco-China wine links, 7-ELEVEN wine, ICCCW in Singapore

By Jim Boyce

Some China-related wine stuff from the Web…

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Morocco-China wine connection

The BBC reports on Moroccan wine industry ambitions, which includes some mentions of China:

Mehdi Bouchaara, a member of ASPRAM [the Moroccan wine-growers association]… says that Morocco is currently producing 300,000 hectolitres of wine each year, making it one of the most significant in the Arab world.

“At the moment we are in negotiations in China and will shortly be building a bottling factory there. Most of our wine is exported in bulk,” he explains.

“With our Chinese partners we will put it in bottles that bear a Moroccan label.”

The story looks at the history of wine in Morroco (“The first evidence… was in the time of the Phoenicians – the first millennium BC.”), twentieth-century changes (“Until the Treaty of Rome in 1957 banned blending wines, the highly coloured, robust Moroccan wine was shipped back to France in bulk and frequently added as a boost to Gallic wine”), and  investment issues (“buyers have to comply with… a list of responsibilities that include employing a certain number of local people“).

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Sichuan food and Shiraz?

Launched in Beijing last year, the International Congress of Chinese Cuisine & Wine (ICCCW) held its follow-up event in Singapore earlier this month, reports Sommelier India. Organized by Ch’ng Poh Tiong, the ICCCW aims to determine the best wine and Chinese food pairings: “the panelists tasted small, individual servings of several representative dishes from Teochew, Sichuan and Cantonese cuisines at three well known specialist restaurants in Singapore, exploring which characteristics of the wines worked best with the dishes and giving their reasons.”

By the way, Grape Wall remains the only Web site to make wine recommendations for this particular food. (More on last year’s ICCCW event in Beijing here, plus an interview with Ch’ng Poh Tiong here.)

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Corner-store Cabernet?

“In its first foray into global merchandising, 7-Eleven, Inc. (SEI) in the U.S. and Seven-Eleven Japan (SEJ) are jointly introducing two proprietary wines – a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon – today under the Yosemite Road label,” according to a post on franchising.com. More from the post:

Value-priced wines, those under $5, have been gaining in popularity and enjoying double-digit sales growth at 7-Eleven stores as consumers continue to search for value in their purchasing decisions…. Suggested retail price for a standard 750 milliliter bottle is $3.99 in the U.S…. and 598 yen in Japan.

I’m waiting for the Super Big Gulp Grenache and the Shiraz Slurpee to hit my local 7-ELEVEN in Beijing.

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