【英语生活】加州葡萄酒业努力修复在中国的形象

When Mark Bright attends wine events in China, he says, people often complain that California wine is overpriced and of poor quality.

The San Francisco-based winemaker and sommelier blames that reputation on vendors who have flooded China with cheap 'plunk' wine that they sell at prices normally charged only for better vintages.

'It's horrible for California,' says Mr. Bright, who laments that if this continues, 'we're never going to be able to build a business in China.'

California winemakers -- in particular those in Bay Area counties like Napa and Sonoma -- have spent decades establishing their wines as some of the best in the world. But in China, where drinking wine is a more recent phenomenon, these well-constructed wines compete with bulk wine from the state that is bottled, branded and sold at prices they could never command elsewhere.

California's wine establishment, led by Bay Area vintners, brokers and trade representatives, is now trying to change the image of the state's wine in China. Mr. Bright is working on a Mandarin-language book about California wines. The Wine Institute, a San Francisco-based advocacy group for California wines, in July 2011 started holding virtual tastings via video conference for Chinese journalists. And earlier this month, Gov. Jerry Brown announced plans to promote California wines on an upcoming trip to China.

There is a lot riding on the efforts. While China in 2012 accounted for just under $74 million of the $1.4 billion of U.S. wine exports -- about 90% of which comes from California -- that is up from $16 million in 2007 and $2.6 million in 2003, according to the Wine Institute.

'There's an amazing opportunity with this emerging middle class [in China] that's buying cars and watches and wine,' says Linsey Gallagher, international marketing director for the Wine Institute. She adds that about 90% of the calls she gets these days are about China.

Some California wine businesses say they have seen firsthand how poor wines from the state have wound up in China. 'We've had people just show up with bags of cash and say give me the cheapest wine. It was that bad,' says Robert Dahl, chief executive of California Shiners, a Napa-based company that buys bulk wine and then blends it and bottles it for customers, who brand and sell it. The people, who are either from China or have business connections there, are often looking to make a quick buck, he says. He declined to name any of them.

Mr. Dahl started his company two years ago and says he is on track to ship one million cases of wine this year, almost all of it to China. He says that he takes steps to ensure that his is a high-quality product, including having the proper facilities to store and filter the wine.

'People were just sending junk,' he says. 'We've been pushing 100% against that. It makes us all look bad.'

David Duckhorn, whose family once owned a Napa winery and who now lives in Shanghai, started a business importing wines to China in 2008 and has taken steps to distinguish the wine he sells from the lower-quality stuff. He says he only sells bottles that are branded the same as the ones a customer in the U.S. would get, from the same winemakers and sourced from the same vineyards.

Wine imported into China, like that brought to the U.S. from overseas, require a local-language label on the back. California winemakers would leave the back of their bottles blank or ship them with the Chinese-language labels already affixed. To demonstrate his wines are the real deal, Mr. Duckhorn now asks for winemakers he works with to ship bottles with an English-language label on the back and he sticks the Chinese import label over it.

'You can peel it off,' he says, which lets buyers confirm the authenticity of the product.

Mr. Duckhorn's company, Via Pacifica U.S. Inc., will soon have eight offices in China, where his staff puts on tastings for Chinese buyers. He encourages them to check online the prices that the same bottles sell for in the U.S. so that they can tell whether it is overpriced.

A bottle of wine in China typically costs about two or three times what it would in the U.S. because of taxes, import fees and other costs.

Still, as a middleman Mr. Duckhorn can't always stop overpricing. One of his customers once bought some Decoy wine, a less-expensive release from the Duckhorn Winery -- formally owned by Mr. Duckhorn's family -- that retails in the U.S. for around $20 per bottle, and at a 10-times markup in China.

Ms. Gallagher of the Wine Institute says some of the current problems will go away as Chinese wine buyers become better educated. The institute has led trade missions to China with California winemakers to promote the wines and recently launched a Chinese-language website about California wines.

Ms. Gallagher says she has lately had some success marketing food-and-wine pairings, with California wines going well with spicy dishes and traditional Chinese food like barbecued meats. The Wine Institute has put on events with sommeliers and chefs to tout this in Beijing and Shanghai.

'Journalists [in China] now write about food-and-wine pairings and how good California wines are,' she says.

布莱特(Mark Bright)说，他在中国参加葡萄酒活动时，人们经常抱怨加州的葡萄酒质次价高。

这位旧金山的酿酒师和酒侍认为，那些向中国输送大量劣等廉价葡萄酒的商贩们破坏了加州葡萄酒的声誉。这些商贩以通常适用于佳酿葡萄酒的价格出售上述劣等葡萄酒。

布莱特说，这对加州来说太糟糕了。布莱特担心，如果这种状况持续下去，我们永远都无法在中国市场立足。

Wine Institute上海一个地铁站内宣传加州葡萄酒的广告牌。几十年来，加州葡萄酒制造商，尤其是Napa和Sonoma等湾区(Bay Area)的制造商，已经酿造出了全世界最好的一些葡萄酒。但是在中国，这些优质的葡萄酒需要与该州的散装葡萄酒相竞争。这些散装葡萄酒经过装瓶、贴标签，最后以离谱的高价出售。在中国，喝葡萄酒是近来才兴起的现象。

以湾区的酒商、经纪商和贸易代表为主的加州葡萄酒从业者正在试图改变该州葡萄酒在中国的形象。布莱特正在完成一本关于加州葡萄酒的中文图书。从2011年7月开始，旧金山的加州葡萄酒组织美国葡萄酒协会(Wine Institute)通过视频会议与中国记者举办虚拟品酒会。本月早些时候，加州州长布朗(Jerry Brown)宣布了将在不久后访华时宣传加州葡萄酒的计划。

这些行动涉及的利益前景可谓不小。根据美国葡萄酒协会的数据，尽管2012年在美国14亿美元的葡萄酒出口（大约90%来自加州）中，中国仅占不到7,400万美元，但这个数字在2007年仅为1,600万美元，2003年仅为260万美元。

葡萄酒协会国际营销总监加拉赫(Linsey Gallagher)说，中国的新兴中产阶级带来了绝佳的机会，这些中产阶级正在购买汽车、手表和葡萄酒。她补充说，她现在接到的电话大约90%都是关于中国的。

Wine Institute加州葡萄酒业正努力在中国推广加州葡萄酒，在旧金山和上海之间举办虚拟品酒会就是他们的尝试之一。一些加州葡萄酒企业说，他们亲眼看到了该州质量低劣的葡萄酒不断地被运往中国。California Shiners的首席执行长达尔(Robert Dahl)说，有些人带着一袋袋的现金来找我们，要求给他最便宜的葡萄酒。情况就是这么糟糕。California Shiners位于Napa，该公司购买大量散装葡萄酒，混合和装瓶后卖给客户，客户再为其贴上品牌进行销售。他说，这些人一般来自中国或与中国有业务往来。他们通常只想赶快大赚一笔。达尔拒绝透露这些人的姓名。

达尔两年前创立了这家公司。他说，今年该公司葡萄酒的出货量有望达到100万箱，几乎全都运往中国。他说，自己已经采取措施以确保这是优质产品，比如添置适当的葡萄酒储藏和过滤设施。

达尔说，人们以前发的都是垃圾货色，对此我们一直全力抵制，这让我们大家看起来都很糟。

杜克霍恩(David Duckhorn)的家族曾一度拥有Napa的一个酒庄。他现在住在上海。2008年，他开办了一家公司，往中国进口葡萄酒，并且着手让自己销售的葡萄酒明显区别于低品质葡萄酒。他说，自己只卖那些与美国消费者买到的品牌一样的葡萄酒，而且产自同样的葡萄酒厂商和同样的葡萄园。

与从别国输入到美国的葡萄酒一样，输入到中国的葡萄酒也需在瓶身后面附上本地语言的标签。加州葡萄酒厂商会在瓶身后面留白，或在发送货物时已附上中文标签。为显示自己葡萄酒的真材实料，杜克霍恩会要求与他合作的葡萄酒厂商发送贴了英文标签的葡萄酒，然后他会在英文标签上再贴上中国进口品的标签。

他说，这个标签可以撕掉，这样消费者就能确认产品是不是正品。

杜克霍恩的公司Via Pacifica U.S. Inc.很快将在中国设立八个办事处，员工会在这里为中国买家举办品酒会。他鼓励员工上网查看同样的葡萄酒在美国卖多少钱，这样就可了解他们在中国的定价是否过高。

加上各种税、进口费用和其它成本，中国市场上一瓶葡萄酒的售价是美国价格的两三倍左右。

尽管如此，杜克霍恩作为中间商仍不能避免定价过高的情况。他的一位客户买过一些产自Decoy酒庄的葡萄酒。杜克霍恩酒业(Duckhorn Winery)对这些酒的定价并不很高，在美国的零售价约为每瓶20美元，但到了中国，价格却涨了10倍。杜克霍恩酒业归杜克霍恩家族正式所有。

加拉赫说，随着中国葡萄酒买家品鉴能力的提高，现有的一些问题会随之消失。美国葡萄酒协会曾与加州葡萄酒商率领贸易代表团访问中国，进行葡萄酒宣传。前不久，该协会的一个介绍加州葡萄酒的中文网站上线。

加拉赫说，近来她在宣传食物与葡萄酒搭配方面取得了一些成功，因为加州葡萄酒非常适合佐以辛辣菜肴和烤肉等中国传统食品。美国葡萄酒协会已携品酒师和厨师在北京和上海举办相关活动来展示这一点。

加拉赫说，中国记者现在会写一些有关食物和葡萄酒搭配的文章，说加州葡萄酒是如何的好。