Chinatook another step closer to becoming a wine superpower after a team of wine-tasters beat the French at their own game at an international competition in Provence. The Chinese team, who last year were 13th in the same contest, took first place in a field of 21 nationalities, with the French second and the United States third. The UK tasters were placed a distant 11th. The Chinese underdogs sipped their way to victory at the “blind” tasting at the Château du Galoupet, which lies near the Mediterranean coast and is one of France’s biggest wine estates. Organisers described the result as a “thunderbolt in the world of wine”. The teams from around the world had to sample six white wines and six red wines without seeing the bottle or label, and then try to identify the wines’ countries of origin, the grape varieties used, their appellations and their vintages. The Spanish and the Belgians, who took fourth and 10th places, had been favourites to top the list. But the French coach of the four-strong Chinese team, Brice Leboucq, said he was not at all surprised by his team’s victory. “In China the selection process to get a place on the team is truly ferocious, which means that here we only have the very best,” he told the specialist magazine La Revue du vin de France, which organised the competition.
Chinese wine-tasters have come first out of 21 teams in identifying details of six white and six red wines in an annual taste test in France, causing what organisers call "a thunderbolt in the wine world"; the French team came second, the US third, whilst the UK came 11th. The Chinese wine industry has grown rapidly in Earlier this year as the nation has been devoting an increasing amount of its lands to vineyards; last year it had 799,000 hectares of land dedicated to growing grapes, second only to Spain globally. recent years, the company behind Dom Pérignon and Moët & Chandon launched a £175-a-bottle red in China, which is being seen as a new beginning for the nation's high-end wine makers.