Grape Wall of China

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

Tasting time: Beijing

Upcoming Beijing wine-related events Thursday, June 26, LAN, 7 PM, RMB280 Lafite wine from France, Chile, Argentina; RSVP with Jennifer Zhang at 6562-1800, x102 / jennifer.zhang@summergate.com. Thursday, June 26, 7-8:30 PM, Bentos & Berries (Kerry Centre), free South African wine tasting, with 8 wines, 4 estates, by Top Cellar; RSVP: 13521-434-994, marketing@topcellar.com.cn or here. Friday, [...]

Wine word – Penfolds Chief Wine Maker Peter Gago

By Jim Boyce As well as launching a new bottle sticker for Penfolds wines on May 22, chief wine maker Peter Gago sat down for lunch and an afternoon talk organized by ASC for about a dozen people in Beijing. Here are seven topics on which he touched: Chinese wines: “I have tasted wines from [...]

Save your fen: Dinners with Daniel Boulud, Robert Joseph, Pascal Barbot, and more

By Jim Boyce Look under the bed, search the wardrobe and dig behind the sofa cushions because you might need every fen you have for these upcoming dinners in Beijing. June 28 (RMB4888) Maison Boulod in The Legation Quarter will mark its grand opening with an Haut-Brion wine dinner by ASC. Guests will include winery [...]

Tasting time: Beijing

By Jim Boyce Upcoming Beijing wine-related events Thursday, June 19, 7-10:30 PM, Grand Hyatt Beijing, inquire re price Chateau Margaux dinner, with owner Corinne Mentzelopoulos; 5 wines, limited to 15 seats; by Aussino World Wines; Info / RSVP with Sophia Wang at 6461-2072, x128. Thursday, June 19, 7:30 PM, Bookworm, RMB180 Australia wine tasting, with [...]

Translation: Latour lunch – 拉图午餐会：酒庄总经理弗雷德里克•恩杰尔

By Ma Huiqin This is a translation of a post originally in English – Latour lunch: Chateau GM Frederic Engerer. 4月26日我与六位中国葡萄酒作家一起同拉图酒庄的总经理弗雷德里克•恩杰尔共进了午餐。本次活动是由ASC精品葡萄酒公司在北京的凯悦饭店中国餐厅组织的。本次活动我们品尝了拉图酒庄1995和2001年份的酒，搭配包括北京烤鸭在内的中国菜，交流拉图酒庄的有关情况以及中国葡萄酒产业的宏观途径。我问了他三件事。 您品尝过中国葡萄酒吗？ 他说：很遗憾，还没有尝试过。 您如何看待中国对波尔多葡萄酒市场的影响不断增加？ 他说一些像中国这样的一些国家正在改变着拉图酒庄消费者的构成：“这将是一群不同的消费者。” “我们没法对我们的葡萄酒价钱大涨三倍负责任。”他补充说到，“这件事超出了我们的掌控范围。我们的目标就是每年提供最好的葡萄酒。” 您对螺旋盖的看法以及拉图酒庄是否试验过螺旋盖？ 他对螺旋盖反应强烈。他提到螺旋盖时用了“人造的（artificial）”一词，而且质疑用上螺旋盖好酒其陈年的结果究竟如何。 “如果你酿的酒是为了在出厂后18个月之内就被喝掉的产品，螺旋盖相当不错。”他说，但是用软木塞更有利于贮存。“这不是传统与现代之间的较量。人们都理解我们的葡萄酒是可以存放50年的。” 他没有为拉图酒庄是否曾经尝试过使用螺旋盖提供线索。 他说“我们的目标是使用更好的软木塞。一旦使用了螺旋盖，葡萄酒就变成另一种东西了。别人管它叫葡萄酒，但我们不这样认为。”，并显示出了他对螺旋塞鼓吹者的不快。 他指着我们喝的葡萄酒问：“你们愿意让这些葡萄酒接触到人造材料吗？” 当被问到玻璃密封塞的时候，他说拉图酒庄在2000年份的葡萄酒上使用过一些，并将在2010年对这些酒进行品尝。他补充说拉图酒庄曾经使用过玻璃密封塞的年份分别是：十九世纪二十年代、十九世纪三十年代和十九世纪四十年代。 说到菜肴与葡萄酒的搭配，前面的几道菜都太辣了，特别是那些起源于中国西南部的菜肴，因此后面的菜我们就减少了辣的因素，北京烤鸭算是个尚可的搭配。和一位波尔多的重量级人物进行交流，同时尝试食物与葡萄酒的新搭配更增加了乐趣。 注：我们当天品尝葡萄酒分别为：Les Forts de Latour, Pauillac, 2001; Chateau Latour Grand Cru Classe, Pauillac, 2001; and Chateau Latour Grand Cru Classe, Pauillac, 1995. [...]

Pandas and koalas: Will a Chinese firm snap up a Foster’s winery?

By Jim Boyce Chinese winery Great Wall buys Australian producer Penfolds. It creates South Wall Shiraz to sell alongside globe-trotting Penfolds brand Grange. The label features pandas and koalas hugging. That was this year’s April fool’s joke on the blog (kudos to reader PA). But this scenario, at least the part about a Chinese firm [...]

Tag team: Penfolds, ASC launch bottle sticker

By Jim Boyce Peter Gago, chief wine maker at Penfolds, visited Beijing on May 22 and introduced an “officially imported” sticker to be used on the winery’s bottles in China. He spoke to a dozen people at the office of ASC Fine Wines, which has had an exclusive importing and distributing deal with Penfolds since [...]

Burgundy in Beijing: The Louis Latour wine dinner

By Jim Boyce I had neither eaten at the Whampoa Club in Beijing nor drunk the wines of Louis Latour, so when Pernod Ricard invited me to try both at a “launch” dinner on May 31, I jumped at the chance. I put some mileage on my legs finding the club and, once inside, some [...]

Wine word – Gaia Gaja: Drink before food, and seven other points

By Jim Boyce I joined Gaia Gaja and a half-dozen others on May 21 for a lunch organized by ASC Fine Wines at CJW in Beijing. Here are a few comments she made as we enjoyed some Barbaresco 2004 from her family’s winery. 1. When you go to a restaurant, do you pick the wine [...]

Tasting time: Beijing

By Jim Boyce Upcoming Beijing wine-related events Thursday, June 12, 7 PM, Med (Block 8), RMB100 Ladies wine club, with US wines; RSVP with Kristen at kristen@block8.cn / 13240-114-868. Thursday, June 12, 7 PM, Kokomo, RMB100 Charity wine tasting for Green Long March, with 5 wines; RSVP with lamarr_irby@hotmail.com / 13581-730-100. Friday, June 13, 6:30 [...]

Winery visit: Chateau Bolongbao

By Jim Boyce I again joined Marc Curtis of China Wine Tours for a visit to Chateau Bolongbao, this time with a TV crew. My past posts covered Bolongbao’s vineyard, fermentation room, and cellar, and of the grape stomping held during a fall visit with the Beijing Wine Club. Here are a few from last [...]

So long Sequoia, taste on Friday night wine bunch

By Jim Boyce Due to the Friday night wine tastings organized by Frank Siegel in the Sanliltun outlet of Sequoia Cafe, I’ve tried wines from North America (Canada, US), South American (Chile, Argentina), Asia (China, Japan), Africa (Morocco, South Africa), Europe (plenty of countries, including Slovenia – twice!), and Australia and New Zealand. I’ve tried [...]

Beijing Bob: The Robert Parker Wine Dinner on the Great Wall of China

By Jim Boyce I joined forty people on the Great Wall of China on May 24 for dinner with the world’s most influential wine critic – Robert Parker. He is best known for giving wine scores out of 100 points, scores that have been praised and pilloried by critics and consumers and used selectively by [...]

Wine word: Starting small – DCT Wines owner Frederic Choux

By Jim Boyce Frederic and Barbara Choux with Christine Lagarde (right), former foreign trade minister and current finance minister for France, at a ceremony in Shanghai to recognize top small-and-medium sized French firms in China. Frederic and Barbara Choux opened their wine importation and distribution business DCT Wines in the northeast city of Dalian in [...]

Wine word – Sixty minutes, twenty wine producers, one topic (China)

By Jim Boyce Winery reps gather in 1949′s Bollinger bar (photo: ASC) Representatives from some 20 wine producers participated in a Q&A session just ahead of Tuesday’s Global Wine Extravaganza organized by ASC at 1949: The Hidden City. The number of people involved meant brief answers, thus I have included several to my question (listed [...]

Tasting time: Upcoming Beijing events

Upcoming Beijing wine-related events Friday, June 6, Le Pre Lenotre (Sofitel Wanda Hotel), RMB998 Mas La Plana vertical tasting and dinner, with 1989, 2000, 2003, 2004 Black Label and 2006 Milmanda White Label; by Torres China; RSVP with Sophie at 5165-5519, x208 / sophie@torres.com.cn Friday, June 6, 6:30 PM, Sequoia Cafe (Sanlitun), RMB100 Tasting of [...]

Translation: 罗伯特 – 帕克访谈录 / Robert Parker in Beijing

(Note: This translation my post on the May 26 trade tasting with Robert Parker, held in Beijing by ASC, was facilitated by Ma Huiqin, professor at China Agricultural University.)   2008年5月26日，ASC精品葡萄酒公司举办了由知名葡萄酒评论家罗伯特·帕克主持的葡萄酒品尝活动，并回答了媒体的提问。帕克说他寻找那些展示着葡萄原料的纯粹性、尊重葡萄整体性的葡萄酒，“当你喝一口或者闻一下，这样的酒会象磁石一样深深地吸引你。” 问：您曾经试过中国葡萄酒或者访问过中国的葡萄酒厂吗，如果您去过的话，印象如何？ 答：我不得不请求暂时不回答这个问题，今天下午我将会品尝几款产品。我也想尝尝不好的产品，来了解一下它们出于什么样的状态。中国葡萄酒的质量将逐年提高，回想30年前的美国葡萄酒市场，当时有很多“很糟糕”的廉价的葡萄酒，而此后葡萄酒的质量突飞猛进。 问：您被当作是影响波尔多葡萄酒价格的主要因素，当今越来越多的亚洲人热衷于购买波尔多酒，因此您的评分在这里拥有巨大的影响力，您如何回应那些说您影响力过于巨大的评价呢？ 答：很高兴有人关注我做出的评价，但是我觉得说我在百分制里能以一分之差对一个葡萄酒厂的生意产生百万美元的影响，这多少有点令人胆寒。我想对我的关注也许有些过多，但对我的关注多一些，比对另外一些人的关注多一些要好。葡萄酒评论家必须对自己真实，最终你得写下你心里真正相信的东西，然后让消费者和市场做出抉择。 问：请评价一下即将在台湾出版的“葡萄酒皇帝”（The Emperor of Wine）中文版 答：这是一本未经授权的关于我的传记，这本书的作者在一开始的时候曾经和我联系，并且说这本书的核心将是葡萄酒产业，但这种说法实际并不尽然。总体上，这本书还算写得不错，以后再出的其它几本关于我的书，对我算不上特别友好，我把这些当作成功所必然包含的代价。那天在长城上的晚餐会，我站在长城上，想到这本书叫“葡萄酒皇帝”，是啊，现在才算真正到了这里（大笑）。 问：您将如何参与中国的葡萄酒市场 答：我的网络主页拥有海量的关于葡萄酒的信息资源，可以译成中文。手机也是传播信息的载体。访问中国，做各种品尝活动和进行讲座是一件重要的事情，这能让人们认识到你是一个什么样的人，是一个爱葡萄酒的人。今天的中国，在葡萄酒方面比30年前的美国要先进很多，在我这一代人里，很多美国人到欧洲去旅行，才开始喜欢上葡萄酒，而这里你们的进步要快很多。我想参与到这个过程中，展示我对葡萄酒的激情与热爱。 （马会勤 译）

keep looking »

  • About Grape Wall of China

    beijing-boyce-grape-wall-of-china-logo

    A nonprofit collaborative blog


    Email: beijingboyce at yahoo.com
    Follow: Weibo, Twitter & Facebook.

  • GWoC Talk Newsletter

  • RSS Grape Wall Feed

  • Grape Wall Contributors

    Nicolas Carre
    Sommelier

    Chantal Chi
    Writer

    Yvonne Chiong
    Sommelier, consultant

    Judy Leissner
    Grace Vineyard CEO

    Li Demei
    Wine maker

    Huiqin Ma
    Professor

    Campbell Thompson
    The Wine Republic co-owner

    Frankie Zhao
    Pro-Wine Training & Consultancy owner

    Jim Boyce
    Consumer, blog administrator

  • June 2008
    M T W T F S S
    « May   Jul »
     1
    2345678
    9101112131415
    16171819202122
    23242526272829
    30  

  • Archives