Tiny bottles: The best collection of small wines in Beijing

July 18, 2013 Uncategorized 0

half-bottles 375 ml at enoteca wine shop beijing china
Part of the tiny bottles collection…

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By Jim Boyce

This is the best selection of half-bottles I have seen in Beijing. I came across them by accident, while grocery shopping in Shimao Shopping Center’s B1 supermarket, which is across from Workers Stadium and includes an outlet of Japan-based wine retail chain Enoteca.

Enoteca has lots of 750 ml bottles but these shelves, and others, are loaded with 375 ml options and catch the eye. Sources range from New Zealand and Chile to Italy to France, prices from rmb80 for Ca’ Di Rajo Prosecco to rmb6400 for Chateau Latour.

The store also stocks 100 ml Italian options from oneglass — Vermentino, Pinot Grigio, Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon — at rmb33 each. Those qualify as carry-on wines, no?

By the way, while I waited for a friend, two women came in separately and each bought wine in a matter of minutes. A quick look around, a few words with the polite guy working there, money exchanged, gone. My friend, not a big wine drinker, then showed up. Within a minute, she decided to go for the 100 ml packet. Yes, three customers is a small sample size, but maybe these guys have found the way to a woman’s liver in China.

More photos of small-format wines…

half-bottles of epsilon and ca' di rajo at enoteca wine shop beijing
Tiny bubbles
montes late-harvest gewurztraminer sileni late-harvest semillon at enoteca wine shop beijing china
‘New World’ bottles
prunotto occhetti half-bottles at enoteca wine shop beijing
The Italian option
chateau beychevelle and les fiefs de lagrange at enoteca wine shop beijing china
Getting pricier
latour mouton rothschild and other small format bottles at enoteca wine shop shimao department store beijing china.jpg
These possibly come with a security guard.
half-bottles of chateau palmer alter ego lynch bages and mouton rothschild at enoteca wine shop beijing china
You’re there anyway, might as well grab them all.
oneglass 100 ml wine packets at enoteca beijing vermentino pinot grigio sangiovese cabernet sauvignon
Plus these. You never know when the flight will run out of Vermentino

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