Suzanne Mustacich’s new book about wine in China, Thirsty Dragon: China’s Lust for Bordeaux and the Threat to the World’s Best Wines, seems to have captured the wine world’s imagination.
Jancis Robinson raved about Thirsty Dragon in her regular Saturday Financial Times column. This is a bigger deal than than you might think because Jancis is generally too busy writing great books to take time to review them! Thirsty Dragon clearly is something special.
My copy hasn’t arrived yet, so look for a book review here at The Wine Economist in a couple of weeks. In the meantime some of you in the Seattle-Tacoma area can meet the author, learn more about wine in China, and taste Chinese wines.
Wildside Wine in Tacoma is hosting a program called Symposium: The Wine Trade in China on Monday, November 30 at 6:30 PM. The cost is $25 , which includes wine and h’ors d’oeuvres. The event is nearly sold out, but if you are interested check with Carol at wildsidewine@comcast.net.
I will be there to add what I can to the discussion, but the featured speakers will be the China experts: Suzanne Mustacich and my academic colleagues Pierre Ly and Cynthia Howson, who have recently returned from another fieldwork expedition to China to gather information for their own forthcoming book about the Chinese wine industry. I’m looking forward to meeting Suzanne and learning more about the Thirsty Dragon!
Mike, Janis Robinson’s review of the business practices of both the Chinese and Bordelais is a cautionary tale about any bubble of trade between cultures with totally different ethics and business practices. Really well done book review.
This book comes at the right time, we all have many questions on China: Are they on the road to become the greatest producer of wine? Is their wine good? Is their wine 100% chinese grown? Are they going to keep buying french first cru wine? Are they buying many vineyards around the world? What is the status of the falsification of bottles? How is the consumption of wine in China?
Having read almost half of the book it clearly gives you another image of wine and China, more complex that the stereotypes of bad-urine tasting wine and forgery practice. There is a real effort and struggle to make good wine in China. This book is a must read for all wine lovers because it opens your eyes to one important part of the future of the wine business.