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By Jim Boyce

The Asia leg of the Robert Parker “Grand World Tour” will start in Beijing in late February, according to a Wine Advocate video posted on Facebook today and to info on the magazine’s website. Each of the five cities on the Asia tour will have a two-part program, according to Parker.

“We do a master class, which is going to be in a particular topic,” he said. “It’ll be a lot of people at these master classes,” he added, noting these sessions will be a less expensive option. “[There will also be an] ‘up close and personal dinner’ with truly profound wines. I’m actually shipping over a number of very limited-production French wines as well as Italian wines and California cult wines.”

For Beijing, the Wine Advocate website lists an “Up Close and Personal” dinner on February 26 at The Courtyard, including a vertical of Petrus and Lafleur (no price listed), and a “Gala Hedonist’s Dinner” on February 27 at Four Seasons, with wines from Pomerol and St. Emilion (RMB6600 / USD1100). No master class is yet listed.

For Shanghai, all events are listed at Four Seasons. They include a “Gala Hedonist’s Dinner’ on March 1 with wines from Graves and Pessac-Léognan (RMB6600 / USD1100), a “Taste of Greatness” master class on March 2 with 2000 and 2009 Medoc (RMB3600 / USD600), and, later that night, an “Up Close and Personal” dinner with 1982 Bordeaux (no price listed). That’s three events instead of two.

By the way, those “up close and “personal” dinners only happen if there are ten reservations or more. Interested parties need to contact The Wine Advocate directly via grandworldtour (at) robertparker.com.

The “Grand World Tour” is sponsored by American Express. Singapore-based Lisa Perrotti-Brown of The Wine Advocate is listed as attending the master class and dinners, while Brian McKenna of The Courtyard is in charge of the meal at his own restaurant (obviously) and Four Seasons. After Shanghai, the tour will head to Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.

For more details, see here.

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