A red wine developed by Taiwanese farmers won gold at the 25th Vinalies Internationales in France this week.
The Vino Formosa Rosso is produced by Hung Chi-pei (洪吉倍), who runs Shu-sheng Leisure Domaine in Taichung’s Waipu District (外埔).
The concours, which lasted from March 1 to Tuesday, saw 126 tasters from 35 countries review 3,340 wines.
Photo courtesy of National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Chen Chien-hao
Regarded as one of the strictest wine competitions, the contest follows the standards of the International Organization of Vine and Wine.
Seventy percent of entrants are eliminated before the reviewers start grading.
National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism assistant professor Chen Chien-hao (陳千浩), who accepted the award in Paris on Wednesday, yesterday said that it is not an easy competition and the result shows that Taiwanese grapes can be used to make world-class wines featuring local flavors.
He and Hung’s family spent 14 years improving the quality of a Japanese grape species named “Black Queen,” Chen said.
With more than 50 years of experience growing grapes, Hung has introduced cutting-edge winemaking equipment from Europe and the US with assistance from the Agriculture and Food Agency and the Taichung Agriculture Bureau.
The cooperation has contributed to increasing wins at international contests, he said.
Taking advantage of Taiwan’s hot and humid weather, they developed a heat aging technique using the Maillard reaction to produce wine, adding brandy and aging it in oak barrels for more than five years, he said.
The reaction generates an aroma through glucose amino acids, while nearly 10 percent of the liquid evaporates during the aging process, leaving about 100 liters of wine per barrel, he said.
Natural evaporation improves the quality of wine, allowing it to keep the fresh and sour flavors and giving a mellower taste, Chen said.
He and Hung plan to set up a new winery to produce products using local crops, such as rice, sweet potato and fruits, Chen said, adding that they hope to promote Taiwanese wine on the global stage.
Vino Formosa Rosso was among 430 wines that won a gold medal.
Additional reporting by staff writer
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS