Red Obsession - A New Australian Film about China's obsession with the

Red Obsession - A New Australian Film about China's obsession with the rare, expensive wines from the great chateaux of Bordeaux

Russell Crowe  narrates a highly entertaining documentary from David Roach and Warwick Ross (Young Einstein, Reckless Kelly) that examines China's rapidly growing obsession with the most sacred of wine-growing regions in France - and China's own rapidly developing wine industry, which now threatens to usurp it. The film, which premiered at Robert De Niro's Tribeca Film Festival in New York, tells how the Chinese stepped in during the global financial crisis, when European and American purses were stretched. The prices of the 2008 Bordeaux vintage skyrocketed as a result.

 

 

The great chateaux of Bordeaux - Lafite Rothschild, Latour, La Mission, La Louviere, Lagrange and Lagune -struggle to accommodate the voracious appetite for their rare, expensive wines, which have become a powerful status symbol in booming China. We find that Rice wine, their former drink of choice, was discredited recently by the Chinese government. with wine now being the recommended drop.

Scarily enough, China's rapidly growing middle class, edging towards half a billion by 2030, could be big enough to consume the world's entire wine output if demand continues to rise as predicted. Wineries in France admit they've tapped into cellar stocks to meet demand. China's burgeoning domestic industry, which has reclaimed huge swaths of land in northern provinces, will not be sufficient. This comes after China bought up 40 per cent of Bordeaux's own wine houses, mirroring the actions of the Japanese three decades earlier.

 

For ABC's At The Movies preview of the movie, please see http://youtu.be/arV7KEaC6KY.

 

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