Standing amid rows of metal-bound barrels in a winery, Chen Chien-hao holds up a glass of wine to scrutinise its golden hue.
Nicely could the bespectacled 52-year-old cheer after the pink and white wines he helped develop in central Taiwan took gold medals at a prestigious competitors in Paris this yr.
“I’m initiating a revolution known as the Taiwan wine spirit renaissance,” Chen instructed Reuters, describing his efforts to rejuvenate a practice that has almost died out on the sub-tropical island.
“We are attempting to offer new life to Taiwan’s wine tradition,” he added. “As a result of now now we have new gear, new wine-making methods, we are going to revive this tradition.”
Hung Chi-pei, 72, the proprietor of the grape farm transport the harvest grapes with Chen Chien Hao behind the cart at Shu Sheng Leisure Domaine in Taichung, Taiwan, July 20, 2020.
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Taiwan is famed for a thriving meals scene centred on conventional evening markets that draw flocks of vacationers, and it makes an award-winning whisky, Kavalan, however is scarcely identified to wine lovers.
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Asian shoppers in all probability know the island finest for Kaoliang, a sorghum-based firewater that tends to win few followers past the area.
Till 2002, alcohol manufacturing was a authorities monopoly that stored out non-public corporations, yielding wine that was “very native”, for home consumption, mentioned Chen.
Now the image is about to alter, after Chen labored with grower Hung Chi-pei on the Shu-sheng Leisure Domaine in Taichung to develop the wines that took laurels at France’s Vinalies Internationales competitors that resulted in March.
Hung Chi-pei, 72, the proprietor of the grape farm take a break from harvesting grapes at Shu Sheng Leisure Domaine in Taichung, Taiwan, July 20, 2020.
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REUTERS
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“In fact I used to be very comfortable. I by no means anticipated this and didn’t know we’d win,” mentioned Hung, standing in entrance of the vines on the winery that dates from 1957, and the place barrels are stacked beside a standard red-walled shrine.
Staff plucked bunches of inexperienced and pink grapes, sorting them earlier than inserting the fruit on metal conveyors to be crushed.
Simply 6,000 bottles are produced yearly of the award-winning wines, based mostly on a Black Queen varietal first developed by Japanese scientists, and priced at T$3,000 ($102) every, or far past most imported wine obtainable in Taiwan.
Competitions supply a platform to spice up worldwide visibility, added Chen, who studied wine-making methods at France’s College of Burgundy.
“The type of the wine has to have native authenticity and it wants to satisfy sure requirements. That’s why I all the time assume that we have to show our high quality by way of competitions.”
(This v story has been revealed from a wire company feed with out modifications to the textual content. Solely the headline has been modified.)
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