Grape Wall of China

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

Wine Word – Maxim Beijing’s Manager Nicholas Carre

By Jim Boyce Nicolas Carre is manager of the new Maxim’s (Solana) in Beijing, a trained sommelier, creator and director of local French-language newsletter Ping Pong, and Beijing rep for DCT Wines. Busy guy. I talked to him about trends in the local wine scene, his view on customers and wine, and what will be [...]

Wine word: Robert Joseph on China wine tourism, blind tastings, and more

By Jim Boyce Robert Joseph is founder of the International Wine Challenge, author of The Complete Encyclopedia of Wine, editor-at-large for Wine Business International, and a visitor to China since the mid-1980s. I met him in Beijing last Saturday at China World Hotel and asked him about market trends, wine tourism, the pros and cons [...]

Friday food fight: Beijing duck

By Jim Boyce If nothing else, food and wine pairing makes for fun research. To this end, I will post a photo of a Chinese dish every week in the hope that readers will suggest a wine pairing (or two). Last week’s candidate: that tourist-friendly treat scorpions on a stick. The wine recommendations: a French [...]

Wine word – Tyler ‘Dr Vino’ Colman on wine politics, carbon footprints, and more

By Jim Boyce New York-based Tyler Colman writes the accessible, informative, and entertaining blog Dr. Vino, which nicely lives up to its tag line, “wine talk that goes down easy.” In addition to teaching wine classes and contributing to publications such as Food & Wine and Wine & Spirits, he recently authored his first book, [...]

Cork it – Carlos de Jesus, Amorim

By Jim Boyce China’s wine market is relatively modest, but its potential is massive, thus making the cork versus screw top debate in this country a substantial one. In April, I posted about this video conference with wine maker Wolf Blass and Foster’s brand ambassador George Samios, two proponents of screw tops (thanks to ASC [...]

Wine Word – Frankie Zhao of Pro-Wine

By Jim Boyce Frankie Zhao, founder of market research and promotion company Pro-Wine Training & Consultancy, has been active in China’s wine scene for nearly a decade. We talked about how he became interested in wine, his picks for newcomers, the local market, and more. When did you first start drinking wine? I started drinking [...]

Make room Napa, here comes Nava

By Jim Boyce File this one under, “Missing the forest for the trees.” Or perhaps, “Missing the grapes for the leaves.” Who’d have thunk a country where most local vino makes two-buck chuck taste complex would harbor a high-profile wine region? Well, China has such a region literally on the map – this map. You’ll [...]

Friday food fight: Scorpions on a stick

By Jim Boyce If nothing else, food and wine pairing makes for fun research. To this end, I will post a photo of a Chinese dish every week in the hope that readers will suggest a wine pairing (or two). Call it the Friday food fight. Of course, I’ll post photos of well-known favorites such [...]

Wine word – Arcy Yin of Food & Wine magazine

By Jim Boyce Arcy Yin has been wine editor at Food & Wine since the magazine was launched by the Trends Group in 2006. I asked her about China’s wine scene, her favorite tastings, how she got interested in wine, and more. Although grape wine represents only about 2 percent of the alcohol market in [...]

Wine word – Grape talk in China and beyond

By Jim Boyce As a wine drinker, I love to hear as many voices as possible, including those of wine writers, consumers, distributors, makers and event organizers. I’ve been lucky enough to talk to many such people, whether they are based in China or abroad, and whether we did it by phone, via email, or [...]

Wine Word – Natalie MacLean, author of Red, White, And Drunk All Over

 [Note: In honor of Canada’s national day, this is the second of two posts today with a “Canuck” theme.] By Jim Boyce Sommelier and wine scribe Natalie MacLean has written for dozens of magazines and newspapers, penned Red, White, and Drunk All Over: A Wine-Soaked Journey from Grape to Glass, and authors the monthly wine [...]

Fire and ice wine: Hell hath no fury like Canucks scorned

[Note: In honor of Canada's national day, this is the first of two posts today with a "Canuck" theme.] By Jim Boyce The Friday night tastings at Sequoia Café are usually a time to chill out, but things heated up between distributors and patrons two weeks ago at an event that featured three Canadian outfits [...]

  • About Grape Wall of China


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    A nonprofit blog by wine professionals and consumers.


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    Email: beijingboyce at yahoo.com

  • Grape Wall Contributors


    In alphabetical order (see full list)


    Nicolas Carre
    Sommelier


    Chantal Chi
    Writer


    Yvonne Chiong
    Sommelier, consultant


    Judy Leissner
    Grace Vineyard CEO


    Alain Leroux
    Wine maker, consultant


    Li Demei
    Wine maker


    Huiqin Ma
    Professor


    Campbell Thompson
    The Wine Republic co-owner


    Brian Yao
    Consumer


    Frankie Zhao
    Pro-Wine Training & Consultancy owner


    Jim Boyce
    Consumer, blog administrator