Taiwan Wine

My sister in law was so grateful for the emergency repairs I did on her computer this weekend that she sent me home with a bottle of red wine named Mollac. I looked it over and wondered that the country of origin was not proudly displayed on the label. Why? I suspect it's because the wine hails from Taiwan's own Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation. The good: the bottle is sensibly capped with an easily opened plastic top. No more fishing half-destroyed corks out of the wine! It's quite sweet, however. Still, it's probably as good as anything imported in its price class, more or less.

UPDATE: my brother in law, a wine collector, sent me this:

TTLC launches new wine, features new combination

2005/6/21
The China Post staff

Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corporation (TTLC) announced yesterday that its self-developed Mollac will now be officially available at the Taiwan market.

According to TTLC, Mollac was produced by combining the red yeast with 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. The red yeast provided the nutrients needed during the process of fermentation. TTLC said the wine will taste sweeter with the addition of the red yeast. In addition, drinkers of the wine will get the benefit of health from taking in red yeast as well.

The new wine was developed by Tzann Feng Lin, director of R& D department with TTLC. Lin had a doctoral degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has been conducting extensive research on the health benefits of the red yeasts.

The wine will come in three types of packages: NT$300, NT$500 and NT$1,000.

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Mmm, all that yummy red yeast! I hate to say, but usually the yeast is removed before barrelling, so you don't get to chew on it much. And we all know how big MIT is on oenology! ;-)

Still, it is good that they making wine there. Can't be much worse than some of the Texas reds we've had over the years. It's just too darned hot here for the grapes to properly ripen and build up their sugars to a tasty level for fermentation. Some Texas grape growers have taken to growing Mediterranean grapes such as Sangiovese and Primitivo, which seem much better suited to the Texas climate than the Bordeaux grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Given the latitude for Taiwan (20-25 N) vs. that of Austin (30 N), maybe those varietals would work there too.

So there you are. I thought the sweet was sugar smothering something....

[Taiwan] [wine]