from wierd wine to controversial wine: enter the Chinese!
Friday, June 13th, 2008 by Rebecca
Is it just me or are the Beijing Olympics stirring up all kinds of news headlines these days? One I caught this week was in regard to the unsurprisingly controversial tiger wines China has been producing for ages and ages and ages. Apparently the wines offer medicinal benefits, including help with arthritis, rheumatism and even (how come this doesn’t surprise me…?) impotence. Rrrroaaarrrr!!!
The tourists go crazy for the stuff! Of course the practice of using tiger carcasses drenched in rice wine is a teensy bit controversial and has rendered the wine illegal in China (since the late 80′s, no less). Tigers are on the endangered species list with only several thousand held in captivity.
But with some folks willing to pay upwards of $5,000/bottle, somehow the wine is still available – if you know which alley to wander down. Go figure! If I had my choice to spend thousands on a bottle of wine and do a good deed for wildlife protection, I think I’d hold out for a really amazing bottle of Mounton-Rothschild.
What wine news story caught your attention this week?
