Italian Sommelier Association To Establish Wine Schools In Beijing & Shanghai
Tuscany winemakers launched the online shop TasteIt earlier this year
For years, the most distinguishing factor of the Chinese imported wine market has been its sheer French-ness. As the Grape Wall of China blog noted last month, French wine currently enjoys more than half of China’s imported wine market share, with imports from France rising nearly 74 percent last year to 117.9 million liters, far ahead of competitors like Australia, South Africa and Portugal. But in recent years, along with new-world producers from the US, Chile and elsewhere, winemakers from a very old-world country, Italy, have been looking to chip away at France’s dominance in the increasingly lucrative China market. Since 2009, Italian imports in China have skyrocketed, tripling from 6.3 million liters in 2009 to 18.9 million last year, rising 68.2 percent year-over-year in 2011. This ranks Italy fourth, behind Spain, among imported wines in China. Still, with China importing 117.9 million liters of French wine last year, Italian winemakers have their work cut out for them.
To take on French producers, Italian wine merchants and winemakers are aiming for the gut in China, literally. As Fabio Carlesi, general manager of an Italian wine store in the Xintiandi neighborhood of Shanghai, told CRI this week, his sales philosophy is to “blend Italian wine culture with Chinese dining habits,” introducing his wines to customers through food pairings. Via CRI:
“Chinese diners should not only drink Italian wine when they have Italian food. We want Italian wine to accompany authentic Chinese dishes. When mentioning Chinese food, people think of Peking roast duck, stewed pork with brown sauce and various fish dishes. Italian wines are perfect matches for all these Chinese foods.”
Thanks to such operational ideas and successful promotions, Carlesi has seen his sales this year climb to 93 million U.S. dollars from 25 million dollars in 2009. He says he plans to have 100 franchised wine stores in China by 2013.
Another strategy currently underway in China to promote Italian wines is the establishment of wine training schools. Last month, the Italian Sommelier Association and University of Siena signed an agreement to launch two dedicated Italian wine schools in Beijing and Shanghai, which will award recognized sommelier diplomas. As these schools (and Italian winemakers) hope, graduates of these programs should become valuable advocates of Italian wine in China in the years ahead. As the wine merchant Carlesi noted, ”At this moment, there are already 750 Chinese students studying Italian wine culture at the University of Siena. They, along with graduates from the two schools, will be future ambassadors spreading Italian culture in China. ”
Italian wineries have also turned to China’s burgeoning e-commerce market to reach new customers. Earlier this year, 18 winemakers from Tuscany set up a cooperative Chinese-language website, www.tasteit.cn to educate consumers on the region and sell their products online.
Favola Italian Restaurant, Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur
From the crudo bar, we also had the octopus antipasti, which has been blanched, sliced and marinated with garlic, chilli flakes, sea salt, olive oil and served with black olives, sprouts, radish and cherry tomatoes. What a beautifully vibrant dish!
Wouldn't have thought of trying the soup here at Favola, but Chef Antoine picked the zuppa di vongola (RM40) for us to sample. The soup is made from stock, chilli flakes, thyme, rosemary and garlic - it has a slight kick from the chillis and was very tasty. Plus love the fact that the soup came with fresh clams (which I like very much) and Merguez sausage. I wouldn't mind ordering this next time.
Ah can't go wrong with mushrooms. The garlic and thyme roasted giant portobello was topped with spinach and Lombary Taleggio cheese. YUMMMM!
The beauty of this lunch was that Chef Antoine picked all the dishes for us. I think a lot of it wouldn't normally be ordered by us as we are quite "safe" when it comes to eating out, usually sticking to what we know. We certainly enjoyed all the new things that we tried including the BBQ Cod Fish (RM90) and Slow Cooked Lamb Shoulder (RM90).
The cod fish is as it should be, the flesh coming off in flakes served with a tangy sundried tomato dressing. It is quite pricey though, especially if one does not have the Starwood card.
The lamb shoulder was slow cooked with tomato jus, olives, rosemary and garlic. I would have preferred if the meat was a little more tender, but Hubby enjoyed it and didn't have a problem finishing almost the whole portion.
For pasta, you can choose your pasta and mix and match with your favourite sauce. We had the spaghetti polpetta (RM40), one of Favola's signature items. The meatballs are made using Wagyu trimmings and cooked in a fresh basil tomato sauce. The meatballs were very good, tender with a nice bite. I certainly enjoyed this.
For desserts, Chef Antoine prepared a trio of dessert samplers for us. We had the chocolate mousse topped with strawberries (cant remember now if this was the zuccotto), tiramisu and raisin cake with oreo ice cream. Loved them all, and the tiramisu was much better than our initial visit to Favola.
On our second visit, photos turned out a little darker as we were seated in the corner where it was quite dimly lit and am not a fan of using the flash (esp when I'm not doing a review as it draws too much attention).
We enjoyed the seared jumbo sea scallop (RM55) the last time we came, and proceeded to order one EACH this time. Yes, we had four scallops each to ourselves LOL. This time, it was served atop some grilled mushrooms which I much prefer since I love mushrooms and scallops! If you ever visit Favola, this is a must-order!
Since we enjoyed the risotto here the last time, we decided to order risotto again, but with a different topping. We had the risotto verde pisello (RM75) which is green pea risotto with seared Wagyu chuck flap tail. Have to say this was also very yummy, and the beef was nicely cooked.
The ravioli was decent, but did not really stand out for us. We did not really taste the black truffle (we had high expectations since it was mentioned on the menu) but the pasta itself could not be faulted. (couldn't access the online menu this morning, but will update name of this dish when I can)
Full set of photos available to view here.
Opening times: Sunday to Friday: 12.00pm to 2.30pm (Lunch); Monday to Sunday: 6.30pm to 11.00pm (Dinner)
Service: A little slow during our 2nd visit, quite difficult to get the waiting staff's attention even to refill water or make our order for desserts.
Location: Favola, Level 8, Le Méridien Kuala Lumpur, 2 Jalan Stesen Sentral, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Directly opposite KL Sentral station and next to KL Hilton)
Tel: 03- 2263 7434
Parking: RM8 for the first 2 hours, RM5 for every subsequent hour.
GPS Coordinates: 3.135685, 101.686524
Website: http://discoverlemeridien.com/menus/
*Part of this meal was an invited review and the other was paid fully by us.
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