ICCCW 2023 Masterclass - The Rise of Marselan in China

Speaker: CH'NG Poh Tiong

Wines to be tasted:

Silk Road Vineyards Harvest Riesling 2021
Chateau Rongzi Marselan 2022
Jade Vineyard Marselan 2021
Xige Estate Marselan 2020
Chateau Copower Jade Marselan Reserve 2019
Tiansai T95 Marselan 2019
Jiabeilan Baby Feet Marselan 2019
Domaine Franco Chinois Marselan 2014

On 25 November 2023, for the first time in Singapore, an unprecedented event will take place at International Congress of Chinese Cuisine & Wine held at The Tower Club.

The proprietors of seven Chinese wineries will be on stage to speak about their Marselans (and one Riesling).

Tasting 7 Chinese Marselans has never been done before in Singapore.

Don’t miss this exclusive opportunity!

Marselan was created in 1961 by Paul Truel (1924 – 2014 ) by crossing Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache. The French ampelographer named it Marselan, after the seaside town Marseillan (50 km south of Montpellier) near where he worked at Domaine de Vassal, the research vineyard of France’s National Agronomy Insitute or INRA.

The original hope was for the new crossing to be resistant to diseases and produce bountiful bunches of big berries to give high yield. Marselan succeeded in being resistant to diseases but did not give high yields because it produces relatively small berries. Those berries, however, are capable of producing wine of character and quality.

As a result, Marselan fell out of favour in its birth country and, if still grown in France, is used mainly to blend with other varieties.

Ironically, China adopted Marselan with enthusiasm.

Marselan was first planted in China by LI Demei in 2001.

Li had been sent by the Chinese Government to study oenology in Bordeaux. Today a professor at the Beijing Agricultural College, Li Demei was the original winemaker of the joint experimental Sino-French vineyard and winery in Hebei Province outside Beijing.

That winery later became a private enterprise and is today called Domaine Franco Chinois which will be showing its 10-year-old Marselan of the 2014 vintage, the oldest wine on 25 November 2023.