Serve the People! Torres China to handle two new revolutionary wines from Grace Vineyard

By Jim Boyce

Call it people power. Shanxi-based Grace Vineyard launched two wines — a red and a white — last week as part of a new brand called The People’s Series. The wines will be distributed by Torres China, which has closely worked with Grace for years, and sell for rmb99 per bottle.

From the press release (my highlights):

People’s Series is a tribute to the People of China, with images of people on the label: workers, farmers, students, merchants, etc. It is also a modern approach on Chinese winemaking for Grace Vineyard. The grapes for the red wine, People’s Cabernet, were selected from different plots of vineyards neighboring Mount Helan in Ningxia at 1,100 meters altitude, grown by local farmers from Qing Tong Xia region who were trained to obtain low yield and to pick at optimum maturity. As for the white wine, it is made by 100% Chardonnay grapes coming from the vineyard neighboring the winery in Shanxi wine region.

Alberto Fernandez, managing partner of Torres China, is quoted in the press release as saying, “People’s Series will appeal to the young crowd of new consumers in primary cities, with a packaging and a style that can satisfy their aspirations and demand for easy-drinking domestically produced wines”.

Earlier today, Grace Vineyard CEO Judy Leissner credited Fernandez for the idea for People’s Series.

“Alberto came up with this idea that we could do a fun wine,” said Leissner. “I thought it was a brilliant idea as people sometimes are too serious about wine. I then discussed with [wine maker Lee] Yean [Yean] how to make a easy-approaching style, while Alberto got on with the design.”

She added that there are plans to export the wines.

Get more info on these wines at the People’s Series web site. And see below for photos from the launch party at Yuan in Shanghai, where the wine is first being rolled out, and of the bottles.

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