Grape Wall of China

Posted by admin at December 24th, 2008

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By Jim Boyce

I’ve spent a great deal of time drinking and thinking about wine this past year and have emerged with mixed opinions, but happily I just got an email from regular commentator 8 Songs that reminded me why I like both wine and the Friday night with Frank tastings in Beijing. There aren’t many places where you can have an impromptu cork versus screw top contest, try an Indonesian wine, and experience excellent comradery all in one night. So, here is 8 Songs’ take on just such an occasion, though he seems to have left out the parts about dancing on chairs and a regular dressing up as Santa Claus (yes, I have my sources).

“The Friday night wine tasting at Sequoia Café last Friday night yielded an unexpected and enlightening opportunity to pit screw top against cork.

“It came about because the evening was a “bring your own bottle” night. Amongst the treasures from the 14 who attended were two bottles of Penfolds Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon 2004. One was under cork, the other had a screw top.

“A more diligent reporter would have gone to Penfolds to check the logic for why one of their premium wines should have two different closures….

“We did check the provenance of the two bottles before us. One came from the duty free store at Sydney Airport two months ago, while the other was lifted from a private collection in Melbourne.

“Our host Frank Siegel suggested we do a taste-off and supplied us with a second glass.

“The two wines were like chalk and cheddar, tea and turnips, or Pavarotti and punk – whichever imagery works for you.

“Though both had a deep purple, almost black appearance in the glass, one introduced itself with a full aroma suggesting a fine balance between fruit and tannin. The other had a fruit aroma but without the complexity. In the mouth, the first caressed our taste buds with an explosion of flavour at the start, a complex structure and a long slow finish with a hint of acid that suggested it could have stayed in the cellar another couple of years. The other was an ordinary wine with no complexity and barely any resemblance to its brother. (Or is it sister?)

“I need to reveal a few qualifications on this.

“- We had already “tasted” about a dozen wines before these two. I saw no one spit their taste at any time during the evening.

” - We had fresh glasses for the screw-top wine, but for the cork we used our same glasses as for the previous 10 or so bottles.

” - We did not give the two bottles any airing time. They were cracked and poured. Some time in a carafe may have helped the second wine.

” - Yours truly brought one of the two 407s.

“So which was which? We had 14 tasters, some with palates still maturing, others with quite advanced technical skills. But the verdict was unanimous – the wine under cork had aged magnificently and had developed into a great wine. The wine under aluminium had not done a thing in its three or four years in the bottle. It was truly stuck in a time warp.

“The group lamented that we had neither Jim Boyce [Thanks for the plug! - Ed.] nor Beijing’s ambassador for cork Ricardo Duarte there that night.

“By the way, we had another surprise that evening. A bottle of Indonesian white wine was offered for tasting. Called Aga White and from the highlands of Bali, the label urged us not to cellar this wine. But it was fine – a slight apple/citrus taste but well built and would be perfect on a long slow Sunday afternoon on Kuta Beach ["Is this a motion for a field trip?" - Ed.].

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More on corks and screw tops:
Screw it? A video conference with Wolf Blass and George Samios
Cork it? An interview with Amorim’s Carlos de Jesus
The fault with no name: Frankie Zhao on corked wine in China

Posted by admin at December 20th, 2008

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By Jim Boyce

Three things impressed me at a recent Landmark Australia event in Beijing:

Let me set the scene: Organized by Wine Australia, the event kicked off at 10:30 AM at Green T. House, a trinity of art gallery, restaurant, and event space in Beijing. Writers from Shanghai and Beijing trickled in and mingled. Everyone then gathered at long tables, with each person facing eleven empty glasses that a place mat indicated would soon hold wines from Henschke, Penfolds, and Leeuwin, among others.

It looked like a typical event, if in slightly fancier digs and at an earlier time. Except that Paul Henry, GM of marketing development for the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, took center stage to talk about… tea.

Huh?

Message 1: There are similarities between Australia’s wines and China’s teas. Henry’s key point: A particular tea’s taste is influenced by the region from which it hails due to the unique combination of soil, weather, and other factors - what the French call “terroir” in the case of wine. This is a useful concept for both China and Australia, given their size and regional diversity. Anyway, after tasting tea, relaxing to traditional music, and enjoying some China-Australia harmony, we moved to …

Message 2: While Australia is known as a maker of good cheap wines, it also has first-rate ones. “We have a reputation as makers of easy-drinking wines, and we are proud of that, but we also have a story about our history, our older vines, our better wines,” said Henry.

True, Barossa Valley Shiraz is well-known, but the country has regions as diverse as Margaret River in the west, Yarra Valley in Victoria, and Tasmania in the far south. And what makes them special?

Just as with Chinese tea, it is the terroir. And by using this argument, Australia feels somewhat like a watchful rugby team that has taken the Old World’s signature move – “we have terroir” – and put up a defense that threatens to jar loose the ball.

“It’s odd that the French refer to us as ‘new world’ when the soil we are growing the grapes on is 600 millions years old, while some of the most famous vineyards have soil that is only 5 million years old,” said Henry. (The only way he could have looked more thoughtful would have been by chewing the end of a pair of glasses and gazing into the distance.) The message is clear. You want old dirt? Australia has it. You want old vines? Australia has them, too. This puts Australia on a par with France and others in the fine wine talk, which is exactly where it needs to be to win more of the premium wine share. And that leads us to…

Message 3: You want superb wines? Australia makes them. We sat down to eleven that were chosen, says Henry, “because we feel they are representative of the very best [that Australia makes].” Unfortunately, my copious tasting notes are in another city (long story) and I will post them later, but I’ll say for now that the 2005 Henschke Mount Edelstone Shiraz is a stunner.

While this event felt a bit scripted at points and was delivered only in English, it gets high marks for the effort to relate Australia to China (wine and tea), the well-crafted message (we have terroir, too), and the diverse array of wines (in terms of varieties and regions). The team’s attention to detail ranges from the tasting notes, labels, and other details provided on a handy CD, to the excellent presentation of the teas, wines, and ensuing lunch during the event, to the organizers providing reminders to invitees both a week and a day before to ensure attendance. Given my experiences with other countries’ wine promotion efforts, this one stands a cut above.

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The wines tasted:

Whites
- 2007 Grosset Polish Hill Riesling (Clare Valley, South Australia
- 2005 Leeuwin Estate Art Series Chardonnay – Margaret River, Western Australia
- 1999 Tyrrell’s Winemaker’s Selection Vat 1 Semillon – Hunter, New South Wales

Reds
- 2006 Yering Station Reserve Pinot Noir – Yarra Valley, Victoria
- 2006 De Bortoli Reserve Release Pinot Noir – Yarra Valley, Victoria
- 2004 Taylors St. Andrews Cabernet Sauvignon – Clare Valley, South Australia
- 2001 Domaine A Cabernet Sauvignon – Tasmania
- 2005 Brokenwood Graveyard Shiraz – Hunter, New South Wales
- 2002 Peter Lehmann Stonewall Shiraz – Barossa Valley, South Australia
- 2005 Henschke Mount Edelstone Shiraz – Eden Valley, South Australia
- 2003 Penfold’s Bin 95 Grange Shiraz – South Australia

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From Wine Australia’s Australia: World Class CD:
“Landmark Australia wines invariably begin with special vineyard sites. A combination of unique microclimate and soil, and the most appropriate choice of grape variety to express the potential of this site, the wines made usually have their homes in established regions of Australia. They tend to be produced from the classic varieties of Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Riesling and Chardonnay, as these varieties have had some of the longest viticultural heritage in the pedigree regions. The age of the vines can help their cause, and it is often low-yielding or dry grown old vineyards that produce grapes with the required intensity of flavour and concentration to make Landmark wine.”

Posted by admin at December 19th, 2008

Trust me, you'll feel more mature in a matter of minutes.

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By Jim Boyce

Call it Frankenwine.

According to the The Daily Telegraph, a system is being developed in China that uses electrical equipment to speed the aging process of wine, “turning young wine from an undrinkable bitter grape juice into a quaffable beverage fit for any table.”

A team led by Xin An Zeng, a chemist at the South China University of Technology in Guangzhou, came up with the idea of pumping the rough wine through a pipe that ran between two titanium electrodes, connected to the mains.

For the test wine, the team selected a three-month-old cabernet sauvignon from the Suntime Winery, China’s largest producer.

Batches of wine spent one, three or eight minutes in the electric fields.

The team then analysed the treated wine for chemical changes that might alter its “mouth feel” and quality, and passed it to a panel of 12 experienced wine tasters who assessed it in a blind tasting

With the gentlest treatment, the harsh, astringent wine grew softer. Longer exposure saw some of the hallmarks of ageing emerge – a more mature “nose”, better balance and greater complexity.

The improvements reached their peak after 3 minutes at 600 volts per centimetre: this left the wine well balanced and harmonious, with a nose of an aged wine and, importantly, still recognisably a cabernet sauvignon.

One of these titanium electrode gizmos would make an excellent Christmas gift, especially if it can also be used to age cheese.

Hat tip to D. Wolf for the story.

Posted by admin at December 12th, 2008

By Jim Boyce

On Monday night, I tried three Chinese wines at Duck de Chine with a group of beverage researchers that included visiting Aussie wine critic Jeremy Oliver and fellow Grape Wall contributors Nicolas Carre, Frankie Zhao, and John Gai. Here is the lineup and the results.

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Yunnan Crystal Dry White 2002 (Yunnan / ~RMB30 if memory serves)
Made with a grape variety brought to south-central China by missionaries in the nineteenth century, this wine tends to elicit extreme reactions:

• Oliver grimaced with his first sniff, called it “foxy“, then refined his evaluation to “boiled pineapple lolly with stale dank old flowers.” A few additional micro sniffs confirmed that he did not like this one.
• Zhao found it both foxy and clean. In other words, he didn’t consider it his cup of tea glass of wine, but thought it properly made.
• Carre, who has tried it once before, described it as having some interesting aromas, but ultimately reminding him of a plum wine.
• I found ample tropical aromas (especially pineapple) and the body surprisingly fruitier than the younger vintages I have tried, though the body and finish were too light. Even so, I could easily drink a glass of this and think this wine ranks among the most intriguing in China.

Note: Oliver suggested this grape does not hail from the species Vitis vinifera that is used for most wine and I later checked on this with Ma Huiqin, professor at China Agricultural University, who said it is a hybrid. Along these lines, he said it smelled like jelly made from Concord grapes. True, that’s one thing about it that interests me!

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Xi Xia Chardonnay 2002 (Ningxia / ~ RMB30)
This wine is served at French restaurant Maxim’s of Paris (Solana branch), where Carre is manager, but unfortunately my supermarket bottle turned out to be corked. In any case, Carre says this wine typically features pear, white flower, and citrus aromas, and is what he calls “fresh” (dry and fruity), though the finish is quite short. I thought I smelled some tart apple when I previously tried this wine.

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Sino-French Chardonnay 2004* (Hebei / sample)
This one hailed from Sino-French Demonstration Vineyard, a nonprofit research outfit just outside Beijing. Unanimous agreement that this is a well-made wine, with Gai giving a positive nod, Carre saying he found white flower and “white fruit” (peach and apricot) aromas, and a few people picking up vanilla. The finish is superior to the Ningxia and Yunnan wines and I would put this on par with the Chardonnay produced by Grace Vineyard. Unfortunately, as Sino-French is noncommercial, this wine is not for sale. Go figure…

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* I’m not sure of the year, but Zhao has tried Sino-French wines many times and pegged it as 2004.

Posted by admin at December 11th, 2008

The parade of wine events continues in Beijing with the next few days seeing more than a half-dozen tastings and dinners. Tonight sees everything from a free Petit Bordeaux tasting at Amigo to an organic wine and food dinner at the Hilton to a Taittinger Champagne dinner at the newer Hilton in Wangfujing. Add in Aria’s World Series Wines, an Osso Bucco dinner at Sequoia, and a Pio Cesare Italian wine dinner, along with the I Am Paradox follow-up at OT Lounge this Sunday, and it kind of feels like Beijing sips while the world economy burns.

Here’s the lineup for the next week (for the longer-term view, check this events page. It is always best to confirm details with the organizer.)

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Thursday, December 11, 7-8.30 PM, Amigo (Central Park), free
Petit Bordeaux wine tasting; buy two, get one free promotion during event; to RSVP, visit www.topcellar.com.cn, email to marketing@topcellar.com.cn, or call 13691-079-531.

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Thursday, December 11, 7 PM, Chynna Restaurant (Hilton Wangfujing), RMB628
Taittinger Champagne dinner, with owner Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger matching wine and Chinese food; by Torres China; RSVP with Sophie Sun at sophie@torres.com.cn / 5165-5519, x208.

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Thursday, December 11, 7 PM, One East on Third (Hilton), RMB400 + 15%
Organic wine and food dinner, with 5 Gerard Bertrand wines; by East Meets West; to RSVP, contact Wendy Jiang at wendy@emw-wines.com / 6445-5787, x8006.

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Friday, December 12, 7 PM, Aria (China World Hotel), RMB1388
World Series of Wine: Hidden Gems, with Summergate; RSVP with Carol Gao at carol.gao@shangri-la.com / 6505-2266, x36.

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Friday, December 12, 6:30 PM, Sequoia Cafe, RMB248
Osso Bucco dinner, with 3 courses paired with 3 wines; RSVP via E-vite; to get on the list, call Frank Siegel at 13701-178-073.

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Saturday, December 13, 7 PM, St. Regis Hotel, RMB888
Pio Cesare Italian wine dinner, with the winery’s Cesare Benvenuto presenting Barolo and Barbaresco; by Torres China; RSVP with Sophie Sun at sophie@torres.com.cn / 5165-5519, x208. -

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Sunday, December 14, 6-11:30 PM, OT Lounge, RSVP required
I Am Paradox, II; with 100+ wines available at 50% off; “Feel free to try, drink and buy”; by French Wine Paradox; RSVP with Charles Carrard at ccarrard.fwp@gmail.com / 8407-5067.

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Wednesday, December 17, 6:30 PM Grand Millennium Hotel, RMB350
Chateau Ste. Michelle wine dinner, with ASC; RSVP with Helen Lu at eventsbj@asc-wines.com or 6587-3803.

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If you intend to attend any of the above events, it is best to confirm the details with the venue ahead of time. To get a wine event listed, send event info to beijingboyce@yahoo.com.

Note: Support this nonprofit site by voting for it in the Chinalyst China Blog Awards. Simply go here and click the “plus” sign.

Posted by admin at December 10th, 2008

By Jim Boyce

Australian wine critic Jeremy Oliver, who spent the past week in Shanghai and Beijing, will soon reach out to the local market. I caught up with him last night in the capital and he said that Trends publishing will release his book on wine in March. Expect a tome of up to 300 pages that will see significant distribution among the trade.

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See also:
Jeremy Oliver: On the China wine scene

Posted by admin at December 9th, 2008

By Jim Boyce

Wine importer and retailer Top Cellar started business about two years ago in Beijing. I talked to GM Julien Bonnard about the company’s strategy, customer mix, and forays into China’s second-tier cities as well as the biggest challenges he faces.

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What strategy has Top Cellar followed over the past two years?

We wanted to create a portfolio different from supermarkets, mass retailers like Metro, and gourmet shops like Jenny Lou’s. We did it by sourcing from local suppliers and finding wines that are exclusive, such as those sold only in hotels and restaurants. The result is that only about five percent of Top Cellar wines, brands such as Santa Rita and Casillero del Diablo, can be found at these other retailers.

In terms of venues, we opened our first two shops in January 2007 - one in Central Park and one on Financial Street – and took over the Bentos and Berries outlet in the Kerry Center Hotel the following March.

We then opened the lounge and restaurant Amigo across from the Central Park shop and that gave us a platform for events. Each month, we have an in-store feature and we use tastings at Amigo to promote this. We have featured wines from Burgundy, Chile, the Loire Valley, South Australia, and elsewhere. These events have allowed us to create a good database of wine customers.

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When did Top Cellar start importing wine?

About six months after starting the business. We brought in a container of wine from Bordeaux in 2007 and it sold easily because we could offer good prices and something new to the market. We have since imported two brands from Chile and one from New Zealand, and will soon have one from Australia. We also plan to bring in wine from Spain and Italy.

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Top Cellar is also operating in smaller cities in China.

Yes, at the beginning of this year, we started to develop second-tier city channels. We now work with 15 distributors around China, including in Chongqing, Chengdu, Dalian, and Qingdao. All are owned and run by Chinese who understand those particular markets. We work hard to find quality operations and to cooperate with them on promoting wine culture.

Every new wine company in this market goes to the same channels – private customers, on-trade outlets such as hotels and restaurants, or retailers such as supermarkets or Carrefour, where the profit margins are very low. We are looking for different avenues for selling our wine.

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What is the customer mix at Top Cellar?

In the beginning, we attracted mostly foreigners, but now our clientele is about 40 percent Chinese. Our Chinese customers tend to want French wine and are especially attracted to Bordeaux. As they try other wines, they also tend to like Chilean, which offer good value and are easy to drink.

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Where is Top Cellar’s retail effort heading next?

We opened a shop in the diplomatic compound by the new U.S. Embassy a few weeks ago – in Grand Summit. Business is already picking up because we have a good selection of wine and a well-designed space. But the biggest goal at the moment is to find a good location in Sanlitun.

We also have one store in Shanghai, which operates as a platform for the brand. The market there is very competitive and locations are very expensive.

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What are the biggest challenges for you?

For me, the biggest challenge is to find good store locations with reasonable rents. Retail competition is quite strong: Even though the biggest distributors don’t have stores, they do offer product delivery, and that means they pretty much operate as wine stores via the Internet or teams that develop private customer bases.

It is also hard to find wines with good margins. If you work with big distributors, the margin is small and there is the chance they might take a brand with only a few sales channels and put it in the supermarkets. The wines we import ourselves are only 10 percent of the portfolio, so it is a major challenge to fill that other 90 percent with products that are both unique to the market and have good margins.

Another challenge is training wine store staff to deal with the needs of each customer. All of our employees have basic WSET training and some have level two or three. This at least teaches them the basics. They also pick up knowledge along the way – sometimes I hear employees talking about trying wines, identifying grapes, and so on. That helps customers in the end.

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How did you end up in China?

I came because of a project with a chamber of commerce in La Rochelle in France. The French government sponsors grants for projects that might lead to exports and it liked our proposal to look at wine sales networks in China – the companies involved, the channels used, the kinds of customers, and so on.

I had an internship with Alain Leroux, the wine maker for Taillan in Beijing, so I could learn more about the market. During my research, I met many people and decided to learn more about off trade, so I joined the wine distributor Summergate as an intern and then later as part of a team to develop supermarket activities.

I worked at Summergate for two years and then someone approached me from a Hong Kong-based company called Universal Technology Trading to see if I was interested in the Top Cellar project. That is how I ended up where I am today.

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Are you positive about wine in China?

If we talk about the big cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, we already have too many companies and the market isn’t growing as fast as it did during the past three or four years. The challenge is finding a place for your wines. For the established companies, it won’t be a big problem, but for smaller companies that don’t know anything about wine and think this is simply a good way to make money, it will be challenging and difficult.

But one thing of which I am quite confident: When I travel to smaller cities, I see more and more people who are interested in wine. It’s just beginning out there.

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Posted by admin at December 8th, 2008

What does Foreign Girl taste like?

Strawberries.

So concluded a group that last night tried a bottle of this liquid concocted by Chang Bai Shan Wine, located in Jilin province in northeastern China. I bought it in Beijing at Carrefour.

Actually, no strawberries here, but a friend who guessed “strawberries and herbs” gets points as this light (8 percent alcohol) somewhat sweet wine includes a few ingredients commonly found in Chinese medicine, including wolfberry.

I realize my photo is terrible (again) so here is the English written below “Foreign Girl” on the label (I reproduce it here with typos):

The wine is clear and transparent with bright color and lustre, mellow and tastelasting with charming fruity taste. Thanks to the nut ritions such as amino acid,vitamin C,vitamin B1, vitaminB2, schisandra element, schisandra alcohol, volate oil and multiple microelements, the wine moistens the lung,enriches the.

In other words, if you need your lungs moistened – and who doesn’t in this dry Beijing air – then this wine is for you. By the way, as much as I joke, we polished off the bottle.

Mmmm, berries...

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Posted by admin at December 3rd, 2008

ASC held a tasting to launch its new office

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By Jim Boyce

I have been mulling over a post about Hong Kong-based wine distributors such as Watson’s and Links moving into Beijing and now comes news that ASC has expanded the other way. Earlier this week, the company opened an office in Kong Kong and, according to a press release, as of January 1 will be exclusive importer and distributor of more than 30 brands there, including Bodega Norton, Ayala Champagne, Inniskillin, Leeuwin Estate, Louis Jadot, Masi, Santa Rita, and Seghesio.

Robert Temple will lead the Hong Kong office, with Samuel Lai heading logistics, Thibaut Mathieu in charge of marketing, and Gareth Punton spearheading sales, while Don St. Pierre Jr. continues to lead the company from the Shanghai office.

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Posted by admin at December 3rd, 2008

Some China-related wine news from the Web…

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Halliday in Taiwan
Food Week reports that Australian wine critic James Halliday is heading to Taipei this month “as part of an Austrade initiative to promote premium Australian wines to consumers, tastemakers, and buyers in Taiwan and China.” Taipei-based Yvonne Chan of Austrade is quoted as saying, “Cultural similarities mean Taiwan’s wine critics also have a say in influencing consumer preferences in China.”

The Taipei visit complements initiatives, such as the Landmark Australia media tasting in Beijing in October, to shift focus to pricier wines. Or as Halliday put it in the article, “With the history and romance of wine linked to perceptions that Europe is the preferred source of premium wines, there is still a lot of work to be done to help consumers in North East Asia understand that premium quality Australian wines compete with the world’s best.”

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Record prices for Latour lot
Hong Kong continues to make headlines as 12 bottles of 1961 Chateau Latour fetched a record 1.32 million at Christie’s first wine auction there in seven years. That was more than double the estimated haul. Overall, 231 of the 246 lots sold, for a total of 31.5 million Hong Kong dollars. I guess everyone is stocking up for that economic crisis thingy. By the way, one Hong Kong-based wine collector was quoted as saying, “I’m surprised by the prices at this auction.” No doubt so was Christie’s.

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Mangosteens in Thailand
What to do when your joint venture with a Chinese winery struggles and then your ensuing job at a bigger producer doesn’t work out? How about shifting from Malbec to mangosteens? That’s what Dominic Rivard did by leaving China and setting up an operation just outside Bangkok to make wine - from lychees, passion fruit, and mangosteens. Interesting read…

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Other recent entries:
Grape Press:Hong Kong auction, Down Under downsizing, Gallo on China
Grape Press: Chinese oak, Rockets wine, Italy targets China
Grape Press: Inaugural Penfolds China Sommelier Competition held
Grape Press: Ch’ng creates translation system for chateaus
Grape Press: Macau wine tax, China as Chile, Hart Davis Hart auction

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Note: Support this nonprofit site by voting for it in the Chinalyst China Blog Awards. Simply go here and click the “plus” sign.

Posted by admin at December 2nd, 2008

By Jim Boyce

It is one thing to try wines and another to buy them. The first helps you learn what you like while the second forces you to decide what you can afford. Case in point: At a recent Carrefour wine fair, I eventually chose three bottles that gave me the best blend of taste and price, all of them from distributor French Wine Paradox.

FWP came into play again with its recent half-price sale at French restaurant Le Petit Gourmand. Despite – or maybe because of - the tight quarters, I enjoyed chatting with dozens of other tastes as we tried some of the 60 to 80 wines on hand - FWP staff repeatedly told us we could have bottles opened and thus try before we buy. Good times! This is what I bought with my RMB500 limit:

Depuis 1531 Bulle de Blanquette (sparkling wine), Limoux, France: RMB100 (2 bottles)
- Cheap but decent bubbly

Martins Tempranillo 2005, Mendoza Argentina: RMB55 (2 bottles)
- Of the New World wines, I thought this provided the best-value body and flavor

Chateau Paran Justice 2001, Bordeaux, France: RMB170 (1 bottle)
- I tried most of the Bordeaux, and while some bottles were less than RMB100, I agreed with a few fellow tasters that this one had the best balance

Paul Valmeras White, 2004: RMB45 (1 bottle)
- Not a favorite, but I thought this would be useful in a blind tasting somewhere down the line.

Yes, I went RMB25 over budget, but I felt this to be a good haul for the price, especially when I include the invaluable experience of talking to and comparing wines with fellow bargain hunters.

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Note: Support this nonprofit site by voting for it in the Chinalyst China Blog Awards. Simply go here and click the “plus” sign.

Posted by admin at December 1st, 2008

By Jim Boyce

Ten thoughts - all I can manage after a heavy weekend of tasting - about last Saturday’s eleventh annual Hilton Food & Wine Experience in Beijing.

1. This remains a “must attend” event for me: A chance to choose among hundreds of wines and meet fellow consumers. Enjoying it is a matter of keeping a steady pace. And being lucky enough to stumble, early on, into a coffee tasting - Guatemalan, Indonesian, and Ethiopian - that provided a day’s supply of caffeine.

2. Compressing the public and trade tastings into one day, instead of two, was a good move. It reduced the stress on distributors and meant the venue had more bustle than last year.

3. Entertaining taster of the year: Yiftach Bar of Crown Wine Cellars, who strongly recommended I try the Louis Latour Ardeche Chardonnay 2006 because it is a “white wine with balls.” Hmmm. That sounds like a reason to not try it.

Anyway, the nose smelt a bit like burnt toast, while the body, well, I will hand over to Bar… “You can taste flint,” he says. “It’s like you’re licking granite.” (He later specified “light brownish-yellowish- whitish granite from Ardeche.”)

4. Presence of the year: Aussino. This distributor had two dozen tables, while ASC, H&L, Jebsen, Jointek, Torres, EMW, and Montrose had a dozen each. Others included DTAsia, Pernod Ricard, Wine Bank, Top Cellar, Links, Wei Hai, Dragon Seal, Elder’s, and ABC, with accessory maker WinPact, educator EaseScent, and State of the Art Wine Cellars also listed.

5. Absence of the year: Summergate. The one major distributor missing from this year’s show. I hope the money saved is dedicated to finally creating a functioning Web site so I can order the company’s wine online.

6. Comeback of the year: Montrose. Though “the end is nigh” rumors have swirled about this distributor for years, it seems to be making a big comeback. Montrose had a dozen tables and winery reps on hand (I believe both from Craggy Range and from Mr. Riggs, the latter having a nice Riesling).

7. Local producers: I spotted three.

• Helan Mountain (Ningxia): I tried the Cabernet Sauvignon with Garry Anderson of Gelipu and he found a lot of green pepper on the nose. The body is fairly thin, with a black pepper finish, and seems typical of many Western China wines.
• Dragon Seal (Beijing / Hebei): I tried all six wines: I found the sparkling just drinkable (foamy, with some tangy fruit) and the Merlot so-so, but most of the vintages past their prime (2004 or older).
• Grace (Shanxi): I have covered these wines, distributed by Torres, ad infinitum. Most of the range was available and I especially enjoyed the reserve Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc.

8. Serving staff: A few years ago, many people manning the sample tables would have had trouble opening bottles, pouring without spilling, giving an appropriate amount (it swung from an eyedropper’s worth to half a glass), and so on. Now? Most have it down fairly well (save for the one table where corks were being pulled through foil). It’s one of those things rarely noticed, but nevertheless symbolic of the changing wine scene.

9. Hat tips to: Links for having both spirits and wine, a fun staff; and an intriguing value wine (the Chilean Casa LaJoya Sauvignon Blanc 2005 at RMB100); H&L for showing lots of enthusiasm; Aussino for having plenty of literature, including guides on enjoying wine; ASC for cracking out some good stuff (I tried several different Trimbach wines, including the tasty Riesling Cuvee 2002 - thanks to Helen Lu for recommending it!); and Torres, which brought a nice range of wines even though it recently held a portfolio tasting.

10. The Hilton did a better job of marketing this year, with an online tie-up with City Weekend, but I would love to see an earlier and more comprehensive campaign, not only by the hotel, but also by the participating distributors. To me, this is a premier wine event for consumers and it would be great to see more of them coming out. Overall, though, good times!

Posted by admin at November 28th, 2008

By Jim Boyce

I wrote Monday about Chinese boutique wineries leveraging their local know-how to target moneyed customers at home. Case in point: Chateau Junding.

This relatively new Shandong operation includes spectacular facilities and surroundings, is backed by Great Wall wines producer COFCO and a sophisticated marketing campaign, and targets spenders who have enough cash to buy expensive imported wines. Take a look at these prices:

• Oriental White 2007 – RMB349 / USD51
• Glory White 2006 – RMB729 / USD107
• Oriental Red 2006 – RMB549 / USD81
• Glory Red 2005 – RMB1099 / USD162
• Santa Grace Red 2005 – RMB1699 / USD250

What does the consumer who splashes out RMB1699 get from Santa Grace Red? If the one I tried is any indication, something around an entry-level New World wine, but with a weaker finish and a heavier bottle (among the weightiest I have seen). While some wines had interesting aromas – grapefruit and tropical fruit on the Oriental White, for example – the most consistent features were a cloying fruitiness and very high prices.

I would like to retry these wines, as our small glasses limited our ability to swirl and sniff, but don’t expect the canyon between cost and quality to narrow much given these seem to hail from “the higher the price, the better it must be” school of marketing. Actually, I would like to retry these wines, with fellow consumers, in a blind tasting against entry-level Australian, Chilean and Chinese wines, and see if anyone agrees they are worth six to 28 times more than a bottle of, say entry-level Grace Vineyard.

By the way, in a that’s Shanghai article, Bob Wise recounts a visit to Chateau Junding and a talk with one of the winery’s salespeople. “China has no lack of rich people,” he told Wise, “but these people don’t know how to spend their money. Here, we are showing them how.”

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Note: Here are the grape variety breakdowns of the fives wines I tried:

• Oriental White 2007 - 100% Riesling
• Glory White 2006 - 100% Chardonnay
• Oriental Red 2006 - 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot
• Glory Red 2005 - 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Shiraz
• Santa Grace Red 2005 - 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Shiraz, 5% Merlot

Posted by admin at November 28th, 2008

One of the best Beijing wine events of the year - The Hilton Food & Wine Experience - is tomorrow (Saturday) from 5 to 8 PM. With hundreds of wines available to sample as well as tea, coffee, chocolate, cheese, and more, the eleventh annual edition of this event should again offer excellent value at RMB230. For trade people, it will unfortunately - or perhaps fortunately - be a busy one as the UGC Bordeaux event is being held the same day. Other upcoming events include a fund-raiser by Beijing Wine Club and an “all star” Bordeaux dinner by ASC. (For the long-term look, check this events page.)

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Friday-Saturday, November 29-30, 10:30 AM-7:30 PM, Kerry Center Shop (B37)
Montrose half-price sale; by Montrose wines; for more info, call 8529-9494.

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Saturday, November 29, Hilton, 5-8 PM, RMB230
Food & Wine Experience XI, by Beijing Hilton; tasting with hundreds of wines, plus food, coffee, tea, chocolate, cheese, and water; 5865-5125 or here for details (open to trade from 11 AM-8 PM).

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Saturday, November 29, 7 PM, Grand Hyatt, RMB1288
Bordeaux GCC ‘All-Star’ Wine Dinner, with wines and owners from Chateau La Gurgue, Chateau Citran, Chateau Chasse-Spleen, Chateau Camensac, Chateau Haut Bages Liberal, Chateau Gruaud Larose, and Chateau Ferriere; by ASC; RSVP with Helen Lu at eventsbj@asc-wines.com / 6587-3803.

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Saturday, November 29, 5-6 PM, Pinotage, RMB60
Weekly tasting; by WineLink; RSVP with Chris at 13611-207-396 / chrisb@winelink.com.cn.

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Monday, December 1, 7 PM, Palette Vino (5 Dongsi Shiyitiao branch), RMB121
AIDS fund-raiser; with five wines; by Beijing Wine Club; for more info, call 6585-3099.

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Wednesday, December 3, 7-10 PM, Domus, RMB228
Monthly ladies’ wine tasting; with five wines and dinner; RSVP with Emily Chin at 8511-8015 / emily.chin@domusrestaurant.com

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Wednesday, December 3, 6:30 PM, L’Isola (Pacific Century Place), RMB688
Alois Lageder wine dinner, by ASC; RSVP with Helen Lu at eventsbj@asc-wines.com or 6587-3803.

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Note: See the long-term schedule. If you intend to attend any of the above events, it is best to confirm the details with the venue ahead of time. To get an event listed, send the details to beijingboyce@yahoo.com.

Posted by admin at November 24th, 2008

By Jim Boyce

Mike Steinberger of Slate wrote about the China wine scene earlier this year and we traded emails ahead of time on a few topics. One of them: Is the trend to create ’boutique’ wineries, often with Western consultants, turning out pricey wines that might appeal to international consumers and not just Chinese ones?” Five thoughts on this topic:

1. Given the size of China’s market and the growing spending power of its consumers, the opportunities are at home, which is evident from the clamor of foreign wine makers seeking a piece of the pie here. As the old Chinese saying goes, “Why fish in your neighbor’s pond when yours is full of trout?” (Actually, I made that saying up, but the point stands.)

2. Chinese wineries have “home court advantages” in terms of linguistic and cultural knowledge, bigger marketing and promotion budgets, and the ability to connect to consumers through wine tours, overnight stays, and so on. They offer familiarity and comfort to consumers who lack knowledge and confidence.

3. On the other hand, they have “away court disadvantage” in the highly competitive global market, namely, a lack of experience and quality wines. While some foreign consumers might shell out USD15 for a bottle of Chinese wine as a novelty, how many are going to drop USD250 for a wine that might not even qualify as entry-level in most major wine-producing countries? That’s a pretty tough sell.

4. China imports a significant amount of bulk wine. It can’t make enough wine for its own market, at least in the short term, let alone the kind of quality wine needed to command high prices abroad.

5. Finally, China is known as a manufacturer of mass goods, not “boutique” ones. Add in the high-profile scandals that have hit its food industry and many people have a bad taste in their mouths when it comes to Chinese products. Any Chinese company exporting boutique wine faces an uphill PR battle not to mention excruciatingly intense scrutiny of its products.

Chinese boutique wineries would no doubt be happy to have foreign consumers buy their wines, especially since it would serve as an additional marketing tool for selling at home (look, the French are buying it!). But, at least for the foreseeable future, the cash cow is in their backyard and, as I’ll explain tomorrow, they are milking it for all it is worth.

Posted by admin at November 24th, 2008

By Jim Boyce

This might interest wine fans in Beijing: I am running a contest on my nightlife blog with prizes for the Hilton Food & Wine Experience this Saturday, November 29. This annual event is among my “must attends” because it offers the chance to sample hundreds of wines, meet fellow wine drinkers, and indulge myself at the buffet.

The Hilton is offering one reader a prize package that includes:

• Two tickets to the eleventh Food & Wine Experience.
• A deluxe room, including wine and cheese upon arrival.
• And breakfast for two the next morning at Elements.

To enter the draw, go to the comments section on this page and answer this question: If you could share a bottle of wine with anyone in the world, who would it be, and why? We will have two pairs of tickets to the Food & Wine Experience as runner-up prizes.

For more information on this event, see here and here.

The deadlines for entries is Tuesday, November 25 at 3 PM.

Posted by admin at November 18th, 2008

Li Demei is joining the group of contributors at Grape Wall of China, a nonprofit site that brings wine consumers, distributors, makers, academics and consultants together to talk about the country’s wine scene.

Li has been heavily involved in China’s wine scene as a wine maker, consultant, writer, and speaker. A graduate of ENITA in Bordeaux, he is secretary of the China Viticulture & Enology Association and has long been associated with Sino-French Demonstration Vineyard, considered by many to make some of the best wines in China.