Story By Ch'ng Poh Tiong

Every important journey begins with the first step.

When we first announced, at a dinner in Bordeaux, on 29 September 2008 that the 10th Edition of Chinese Bordeaux Guide 2009 will publish the official Chinese names of the 1855 Medoc Classification, it was with a view to standardizing the Chinese names of the 61 chateaux.

While every chateau has the same name in French and English, it has an average five to 10 different Chinese names.

This is because a journalist in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan or China will translate, for example, Chateau Mouton-Rothschild differently. Multiply that with 20 different wine retailers, importers and restaurant wine lists and the potential for confusion is extraordinary.

Some journalists and wine importers will, of course, be re-using a translation that someone else had already done. The fact remains, though, that there are an average five to 10 different names for each chateau. Too many than are necessary to confuse the wine lover in China (and Chinese reading people else­where) who are interested in, or in love with, the wines of Bordeaux.

One of the unofficial Chinese names for Chateau Mouton-Rothschild, for example, is a translation that calls the First Growth as Chateau ‘Wu Tang King'. ‘Wu Tang' here is the same Hubei Province Daoist martial arts sect particularly renowned for its swordsmanship.

As you can see, the need to have official Chinese names for the 1855 Medoc Classification is not only very important, it is also very urgent.

Chinese Bordeaux Guide itself cannot give the chateaux official names. We need them to tell us what they are because we are only the messenger. Several chateaux have actually turned to us for help with the translation and in this regard, I am very grateful indeed to Mr LI De Mei our China Correspondent (and who graduated from Bordeaux's prestigious ENITA) and Mr PAN Cheng Lui, Senior Executive Editor of Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao (Pan is also a published novelist and poet).

Although we are disappointed that, so far, only 14 chateaux have confirmed their official Chinese names, we are not deterred from this important work. (Chateau Latour and Chateau Ducru-Beaucaillou have also confirmed they will only use their original names).

We will persevere and continue to update new official names in www.chinesebordeauxguide.com, the world's first bi-lingual Chinese/English Bordeaux website, which will be updated every month.

We have taken the first step and this impor­tant journey continues.

Please find, on the next page, those chateaux with official Chinese names in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

1855 梅铎分级酒庄名称统一译名
OFFICIAL CHINESE NAMES FOR 1855 MEDOC CLASSIFICATION

此页的更新与增补，请查阅 www.chinesebordeauxguide.com。
For regular updates of this page, please check www.chinesebordeauxguide.com