The afternoon session of The Grape Wall Challenge will feature red wines. Here is a list of the six people on the consumer panel. They will get the wines in flights of ten and are being asked to judge each wine as “I love it,” “I like it,” “I dislike it,” or “I hate it. (See here for a list of judges on the expert panel.)

Brian YAO, Hubei
A 20-year veteran of the IT/Telecom industry, Yao became interested in wine about 18 months ago and regularly attends tastings in Beijing.

–

Frank SIEGEL, United States
Siegel has hosted wine tastings at his Sequoia Cafe for several years and praises Beijing for offering a wide range of wines from around the world.

–

Ivy LIU, Sichuan
Liu became interested in wine when the PR firm where she works assigned a Chinese wine producer as her client.

–

Weiguo KONG, Shandong
Employed at a grape research institute in Shandong, Wei spends far more time studying than drinking wine. He writes a blog about wine.

–

Yu WANG, Beijing
Wang started to learn about wine in 2006 as a student at Beijing Agriculture College. He is vice president of the school’s wine lovers club and drinks wine about once per week.

–

Miao WONG, Jilin
Wong manages Acupuncture Records and occasionally drinks wine, including a glass or two at home after a particularly stressful night of work.

Sign up for the Grape Wall newsletter here. Follow Grape Wall on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. And see my sibling sites World Marselan Day, World Baijiu Day and Beijing Boyce. Grape Wall has no advertisers, so if you find the content useful, please help cover the costs via PayPal, WeChat or Alipay. Contact Grape Wall via grapewallofchina (at) gmail.com.