By Jim Boyce

Posts have been few and far between of late. Blame it on my two-week holiday in Canada, the crush of projects I faced upon returning to Beijing that ate into my limited blogging time, and the hacking of this site that made it impossible for me to get access. (Thanks to IT guru / pinyin legend Mark Swofford for returning things to normal.)

I have started to add posts again and there are dozens in the pipeline, including:

• A post by Chantal Chi on China’s wine-making regions as well as posts from other contributors.
• Interviews with Patricio de la Fuente Saez, managing director of Links China, with Rebecca Leung, wine writer and author of the Wine is Beautiful blog, with Charles Carrard of French Wine Paradox, and with wine consumer and collector Jeff Gao.
• A look at ten trends in China’s wine market last year, trends that will likely continue this year.
• A write-up of a dinner I attended with what I consider the Beijing wine “dream team” as well as write-ups of more than a dozen other events.

Also, freed from Internet and cell phone during the holidays, I started on a series of articles about my experiences as a consumer during 2008, a spectacular year in which I was fortunate to meet many fellow wine fans, drink some superb wines, meet some international bigwigs, have dinner with Robert Parker on the Great Wall, attend blind tastings organized by wine magazines, and, well, much more. I will also write about some events on the horizon, including the expected launching of Decanter on the mainland, a wine search database, some new Chinese wines, and more, and the downside of being a wine consumer, which will touch on issues that range from high retail prices to my experiences with some rather hostile people in the business. As usual, there is no shortage of topics…

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