Grape Wall of China

A China Wine Blog: The Scene in the World’s Largest Market

Les Millesimes: A three-story wine club in the heart of Beijing

By Jim Boyce On Tuesday night, The Wine Republic’s Campbell Thompson and I visited Jianwai Soho’s three-floor Les Millesimes, a wine club that includes a “cellar”, two restaurants, a cigar lounge, wine displays galore, and 17 themed-private rooms that range in size up to more than 200 square meters. This place is big. If it [...]

Posts coming: Meantime, a movie clip on the Saskatoon berry-gooseberry debate

By Jim Boyce The posting has been light this week, but I’ll soon have write-ups on three visits in and around Beijing – to winery Chateau Bolongbao, to the Crown Worldwide wine cellar that will open on April 10 and to a new three-floor wine club called Les Millesimes. Until we return to our regularly [...]

Grape press: China wine news from around the Web

By Jim Boyce Here are a few tastes of recent online items about the China wine scene. ‘Millions of Chinese will be disappointed’ In her Financial Times column, Jancis Robinson writes about her recent trip to China. Since her last visit in 2003, Chinese wines have not made the progress she had hoped: On my [...]

Job wanted: Australia-based wine maker seeks China position

A reader recently contacted Grape Wall about working in China. Here are the details: An Australia-based wine maker is planning to move to China and is looking to work in the local wine industry. He is open to opportunities that range from consulting on the late-harvest period to working in distribution, and has interest in [...]

Wet your whistle: Upcoming Beijing wine events

By Jim Boyce Upcoming Beijing wine events March 20, 7 PM, Jasmine, RMB518 Chateau Gigognan wine dinner, with sales director Frederic Bayle, by East Meets West; RSVP with Wendy at East Meets West (6445-5797) or Jasmine (6553-8608) March 20, 7 PM, Grill Restaurant (Radisson SAS), RMB588 Kendall-Jackson wine dinner, with Asia-Pacific Regional Director Jack Cook, [...]

Pinot smackdown: Sequoia holds first in a series of tastings

By Jim Boyce Last Friday night’s wine tasting at Sequoia Café focused on Pinot Noir, with four choices from Torres China. Sequoia’s Frank Siegel plans to organize Pinot tastings with other distributors, thus giving customers an idea of what’s available in the market. As with other blind tastings at Sequoia, customers received a poker chip [...]

Update: decanter.com reports on Customs investigation of wine importers

By Jim Boyce A March 18 decanter.com story reports that ASC Fine Wines has denied it faces a major fine and deportation of company directors due to under-declaration of duties. Decanter cites a post on jancisrobinson.com, in which Simon Tam, the International Wine Centre director in Shanghai and Hong Kong, stated ASC is “is looking [...]

Interview: Wine ‘antisnob’ Tim Hanni

- By Jim Boyce Tim Hanni, one of the first two Americans to become a Master of Wine, has gone from someone who once “‘completely looked down on people who drank wine he considered inferior” to what the Wall Street Journal called the “antisnob.” He is the man behind the Budometer, a questionnaire that looks [...]

Update: Chinese Customs investigating wine importers

By Jim Boyce As reported last week, Chinese Customs continues to inquire into the import declarations of wine importers. Investigators, in what appears to be an industry-wide initiative, are looking for companies that under-declare the value of their imports. ASC Fine Wines today stated that its managing partner Don St. Pierre, Jr. and vice president [...]

Customs investigating wine importers II – ASC releases statement

By Jim Boyce ASC Fine Wines has released a statement about inquiries into the company by Chinese customs. The obvious question: what is meant by ASC being with Customs staff “now”. I have talked to numerous wine importers about this investigation and will have details later this afternoon. Here is a copy of the statement, [...]

Tasting notes: The Wine Republic soft launch

By Jim Boyce Wine importer and distributor The Wine Republic held its soft launch at Café Europa in Beijing last Wednesday. The company is a partnership between Rathbone Wine Group (Australia) and Campbell Thompson, a former marketing director at ASC Fine Wines and a contributor to Grape Wall of China. Its initial goal is to [...]

Beijing Wine Club: Wake up and smell the Chianti

By Jim Boyce I’d rather not return to this topic, given my post in December, but I wish the Beijing Wine Club would get its act together. I planned to skip last Saturday’s event, but after running into the club’s co-founder at The Rickshaw a day before and getting an SMS from someone who signed [...]

Chinese Customs investigating wine importers

By Grape Wall of China Four contributors to Grape Wall of China have talked to sources in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Beijing who report that China Customs is investigating wine importers. The inquiry seems to be targeted at firms that under-declare the value of their imports. Two well placed industry sources say that staff members [...]

Job wanted: Portugal-based wine professional seeks Hong Kong, Macao position

A reader recently contacted Grape Wall about working in China. Here are the details:  Portugal-based wine professional seeks position with a wine importer and/or distributor in Macao or Hong Kong. Has five-year degree from ISA (Portugal) in viticulture and wine-making. Since June has been working as an assistant wine maker in a major Portuguese wine [...]

Wet your whistle: Upcoming Beijing wine events

By Jim Boyce Upcoming Beijing tastings March 12, 7 PM, Cafe Europa, RMB150 Mount Langi Ghiran tasting, by The Wine Republic; four wines with “tasting plates”; RSVP with Joseph Kiang at Cafe Europa (5869-5663). March 13, 7 PM, L’isola, RMB898 Pio Cesare wine dinner, by Torres, with fourth-generation proprietor Pio Boffa; RSVP with Sophie at [...]

Gouda times! Beijing Cheese Society goes ‘all China’

By Jim Boyce Yellow Valley’s de Ruiter and Beijing Cheese Society’s Ruwart (Photo:BCS) There is no shortage of wine and cheese events in Beijing, but rare are those featuring Chinese wine and Chinese cheese that are both good. Last night, Beijing Cheese Society gathered at New Veranda in Shunyi to taste Yellow Valley cheeses and [...]

Get your Gruner Veltliner on: Austrian wines at Cafe Europa

By Jim Boyce Cafe Europa’s Austrian wine lineup (Photo: C. Thompson) Forty people gathered at Café Europe on January 24 for the launch of four Austrian wines the restaurant is not only selling, but also importing. Good times all around (see this China Daily article). Expect to see more restaurateurs import their own wine and [...]

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