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China |
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:: China
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Imagine a happy and noisy atmosphere, carts and cars, buses and motorbikes, tractors and taxis all trying to squeeze through the narrow streets. Imagine an oasis next to the desert, a city with green gardens and dry hills, where people smile, where women wash their clothes in the river along the pavement. Imagine a place surrounded by vineyards, houses with small shaded courtyards, welcoming patios with carpets and cushions, hidden behind large coloured gates. |
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You are in Turpan, a small city where people cultivate grapes to make dried fruits before producing wine, with a curious landscape of square houses on the hills, used to keep and dry the grapes. In Turpan, Uyghur people produce dry grapes, a delicious and sweet greediness in a country of spices and exotic bazaars. Those who produce wine from these delicious grapes are the Chinese, a wine which is most of all original because it comes from the vineyards that are the most far-away from the seas. A wine from the desert, which takes an active part in this specific atmosphere.
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Here it is already Central Asia, people speak uyghur and not chinese, they go to the mosque instead of the temple, and the food is specific to the region, and absolutely delicious : warm tasty breads, spices, sticky rice with honey. The perfect food for sun-grown wines, even if these wines are rarely found on the tables of local people, as most of them are Muslims. Wine growing is a tradition here, as it is in other Central Asia countries. A wine full of contrasts and contradictions : vineyards in the middle of a desert, far away from oceans, and an extreme climate ; a luxury product in a place where poverty can be seen everywhere but in the smiles and warm welcome of the inhabitants. Wine from North-West China can sometimes be dreamful and make you feel like you are living in another world and in another time...… |
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