Vino Formosa Rosso from Taichung wins Gold in France, following Kavalan Soloist whisky winning in Scotland. Japanese grape species named Black Queen, adding brandy and aging it in oak barrels for more than five years with a unique label.
Wonder if this is on the street in Taiwan?
Yes, you can buy it in taiwan
you better hurry while supplies last.
can’t find some of Kavalan’s winning whiskey even at its Ilan distillery.
I’d be curious to try it. All Taiwanese wines I’ve ever tried were absolute trash.
Does a bottle of that wine cost like a kidney or is it reasonable?
Congrats like to try one too
Seems to be a fortified wine clocking in at 18%. Is 樹生 the winery? Yes
Doesn’t work on my phone. Interesting Romanization error
‘adding brandy and aging it in oak barrels for more than five years’ yes it is.
This makes the win already a little watered down:
‘Vino Formosa Rosso was among 430 wines that won a gold medal.’
Still, it’s a certain indication of quality.
Why’s it watered down? Is Belgian beer fortified beer and therefore any wins are watered down?
I’m surprised about the Black Queen grape. A mate of mine works in wine - I’ll send him a message.
EDIT: wine tastings, even blind ones, have been shown to be junk science. Human taste buds cannot tell the difference between subtle flavours. There has been no evolutionary need for us to do so, other than extreme flavours that could indicate harm.
I think he meant the fact that 430 “Gold Medals” were awarded.
EDIT: wine tastings, even blind ones, have been shown to be junk science. Human taste buds cannot tell the difference between subtle flavours. There has been no evolutionary need for us to do so, other than extreme flavours that could indicate harm.
But I’m sure I could find a wine that you would agree tastes like horse piss 
The judges appear to be a respectable organization but who knows.
Being respected or respectable isn’t the issue. The point is nobody can reliably and consistently tell the difference between subtle taste differences. It’s physically impossible.
Food awards and beverage awards or nonsense?
There is this ‘Award’ issuing body that every year issues awards for taste, taste of any food item. You enter, pay your due and get 1, 2, or 3 stars awarded by a ‘blind’ tasting jury.
The real jury is the end-user, but they are often misguided by so called ‘taste’ competitions. And food(v)bloggers.
Supposedly the first two. Subtle differences in nonsense are easier to identify.
https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/08/the_most_infamous_study_on_wine_tasting.html
There have been several other experiments. One involved putting cheapish wine into expensive bottles which was then rated highly by the wine experts. Another involved putting the same wine several times into a wine tasting by experts and it got wildly different results.
The problem is people who believe they have highly discerning taste are unwilling/unable to accept that they don’t. To a degree they are correct. People can differentiate in terms of quality to varying degrees according to experience. However, nobody can consistently tell the difference between a $50 and a $1000 bottle of wine.
Anyways, they put a lot of effort in making their wine and using a grape that’s rarely used anywhere. But the reason it’s big news in Taiwan is because it’s produced in Taiwan. But getting one of over 400 gold medals … 
It’s a good news story. Assuming the price isn’t extortionate and I can find a bottle I’ll buy one. My MIL loves a drop of port, and it sounds similar.
You better line up to invest. 
But they can usually tell the difference between shit and something decent. These medals have some value there for the average punter.
In terms of US dollars $50 isn’t shit. Well, it could be shit to some.
Yes, of course it is possible to differentiate between something shit and something decent. I think most people can differentiate between something shit and something not shit.
To get a gold medal presumably the wine has to be the best, or at least outstanding. My point remains that even experts are unable to tell the difference between high-quality wine and exceptional wine.
Any award is of some value to a puntor. Caveat emptor, as always.
Absolutely. Maybe this wine costs $50, I don’t know. That’s not cheap. I would see an award like this as one indication that it could be worthy of that pricetag.
I understand that point and have read those studies. But I don’t think that’s the basic function of these kind of awards. There are many of them and you’ll even see wines at very inexpensive prices which have won various medals.