Not so long ago, any time you mentioned the burgeoning Chinese taste for expensive fine bordeaux, someone would be sure to hoot, “Yes, but don’t they drink it mixed with Coca-Cola?”
It used to be true, though it hasn’t been for some time, but continuing to laugh about it probably made us all feel better about the fact that the strength of the Asian market was pricing it out of our reach.
Well now, guess what? After all that eyeball-rolling, Hausmann Famille, a French company has launched a red wine that is flavoured with… cola.
Rouge Sucette cola (red lollipop cola) is made from 75 per cent wine with the balance sugar, water and cola flavouring. It’s about 9% abv, is best drunk straight out of the fridge and will be rolled out across France next month.
This is the sort of story you might expect to be greeted with cries of “Quel horreur!” But, actually, although this might be the first cola wine, flavoured wine is something the French have already embraced.
In France they drank 15 million bottles of flavoured wine last year, and that figure is expected to double in 2013.
The idea of adding flavouring to wine may seem an abomination to wine snobs, in the same way that certain Michelin chefs have been known to be so enraged when customers ask for ketchup with their dinner that they throw them out of the restaurant.
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