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The Dallas Morning News - Interview
with Jennifer Hong
11:47
AM CDT on Wednesday, Oct 25, 2006
By Kim Pierce/Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
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Wine from
China? Why not? -
Jennifer
Hong grew up in Shanghai, fell in love with French wines and
studied winemaking in France and California. Now she finds
herself bridging three cultures as the winemaker for China
Silk wines, which were introduced to the United States earlier
this year, starting with Texas.
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The wines are a
joint American-Chinese venture into relatively new territory
for the Chinese. "In China, we don't have a culture of
wine drinking," Ms. Hong said in Dallas recently to talk
about the wines, "but I started even in college."
That was in 1982, she says, when Chinese wines were sweet,
"more like grape juice with a little alcohol."
Then one day she had an epiphany while tasting wine. "In
1988, the one that made me never look back was Chateauneuf-du-Pape,"
Ms. Hong says. The wine is a classic from the Rhone region in
southern France. But she hadn't given a thought to making wine
until years later in California, when the dot-com bust left
her without a job.
"My then-husband said, 'Why don't you go back to school
and study at Davis?' " The University of California at
Davis is America's premier viticulture school. "I thought,
'Why not?' That was just five years ago."
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KYE R. LEE/DMN
ZWinemaker
Jennifer Hong divides her time between her home in San
Francisco and the China Silk winery in China
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She already had a degree in industrial chemistry, which
provided a good foundation. After graduation, she moved to
France briefly to gain winemaking experience there. Then,
while she was working at Kendall-Jackson in California, a
former professor linked her up with an American entrepreneur
who was starting the joint Chinese-American wine project.
But it took a while to get the wines right. Steve Clarke, the
American entrepreneur, knew retail and importing, but not wine.
He'd chosen a Chinese winery that had been completely
modernized and imported some samples.
But they weren't up to Ms. Hong's standards.
"I told Steve they were not good enough," Ms. Hong
says, "and you don't need to do 10 wines." Instead
of single varietals – wines made from single grapes – she
advised him to start with blends. She also urged a lower price
to be competitive.
"So I went to the winery," she says, "and
talked to the winemaker." But even though Ms. Hong
provided the formulas and specifications, the second batch
still wasn't right. "We modified them again last year,"
Ms. Hong says. That's when she finally gave them her nod of
approval, and China Silk officially launched in February.
Two of the five wines, China Silk Marco Polo White and China
Silk Marco Polo Red, have already won bronze medals in this
year's San Francisco International Wine Competition. Not bad
for $7 bottles of wine.
The unoaked white is primarily chardonnay with a bit of
riesling added. "I tried to give it more floral, more
fruit in the nose," Ms. Hong says. "It's a very easy-drinking
wine." It shows light citrus and tropical notes, with a
hint of grapefruit.
Similarly unoaked, the red blends cabernet sauvignon, merlot
and syrah. It starts with soft, dark berries, adding toasted
red pepper and silky tannins in the mouth. "It goes with
everything," Ms. Hong says. "It's more European in
style, more restrained."
And yes, the grapes are grown in China, in the foothills of
the Tian Shan mountain range in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Ms. Hong
shuttles between there and her home in San Francisco. China
Silk Marco Polo White and Red are $7 at Pogo's and Mr. G's.
Kim Pierce is a Dallas freelance writer
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© 2006
China Silk Imports Inc. - USA: 1-206-349-8399
chinasilk@chinasilkwines.com
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