You might think that after the Chinese government executed two guys for their part in sickening 300,000 kids by adding chemicals to milk powder, food processors might be behaving themselves.
Apparently not. It looks like China’s food and beverage makers may be getting a bit too creative again. This time they got caught making wine without grapes.
Six wine makers were arrested and, at least three large volume wineries were shut down this week after being accused by local Chinese authorities of adulterating their wines and using counterfeit labels from best-selling brands.
The official action came after an investigation by Chinese national television CCTV documented that a nationwide con was being inflicted upon China’s rapidly growing wine aficionados.
Some of the alleged wine contained as little as 5 percent fermented grape juice and the balance reportedly filtered water, sugar, activation chemicals and artificial grape flavoring and coloring agents.
One of the three wineries used nothing but water and chemicals and, according to Chinese media, thousands of bottles were sold for as little as $1.50 each. Beijing television reports that the company – Jiahua – sold about 2.4 million bottles of the faux wine this year.
The bogus wine came from Changli County, in Hebei Province, where 80 percent of the tillable land is devoted to growing cabernet sauvignon grapes, one of the world’s most recognized red varietals. Changli is called China’s Bordeaux region and is the largest of the country’s four wine-making districts.
More than 5,000 cases of wine were seized and authorities are tracing shipping papers to see where the questionable wine was shipped.
“We are highly concerned about this behavior. To ensure safety measures, we have already started to remove the suspected wines from the shelves,” Zhang Tao, spokesman for Walmart supermarkets in Beijing and other cities, told leading Chinese newspapers.
Authorities also seized printing plates and thousands of forged labels for 19 superior high-priced brands, including Great Wall Wine and Dynasty, Dragon Haven and others.
The crackdown comes a month ahead of China’s lunar New Year, the peak season for domestic wine sales, according to the China Times, which reported that nearly 30 other wineries were being shut down.
Television in Taiwan says that a good percentage of the wine produced by some of the wineries involved is exported worldwide, with ports in Australia, Mexico, California and Washington State being favorite destinations.
I checked with checked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement late today and a press officer said she knew of no alerts or import warnings on Chinese wine in the Seattle region but added that she couldn’t speak for the rest of ICE operations.
The Chinese have savored alcoholic beverages for thousand of years, mostly high-alcohol content beverages such as whiskey and other spirits made from rice and grain.
“Although China has a 6,000 year history in grape growing, and a 4,000 year history in wine making, it was not until this century that Chinese wine was recognized in the West,” Stephen Reiss, an international wine authority and author, wrote on his website.
The sophistication of Chinese wine drinkers is increasing but there are only a few highly drinkable examples on store shelves, according to a couple of burgundy-swilling friends of mine who live and drink in the country.
Early this year, Stan Sesser reviewed six wines in his article for the Wall Street Journal.
“All but one of the wines were actually drinkable, a couple even enjoyable,” Sesser wrote. He described a $5.40 bottle of Cabernet from the same region with the fraudulent wineries as having, “An aroma that evoked dirty sweat socks and cleaning fluid and a foul chemical taste.”
At the top of his list was a $72 bottle of Great Wall Cabernet that he reported “could have held its own with Cabernets from other countries.”
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