07.24.08
Posted in Jim Boyce at 12:26 pm by admin
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 on the menu at Maxim’s.
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What wine trends have you seen in Beijing during your five years here?
There are more and more choices for consumers in terms of both New World and Old World wines. With French wines, for example, I am seeing small appellations you can hardly even find in France! Three or four years ago, you didn’t see much wine from places such
as Cotes de Rhone, Saint Joseph, or Gicondas. They are good wines but have limited production and can be quite expensive, so distributors didn’t want to take the risk.
In broader terms, Bordeaux has been dominant since the beginning, but three years ago we started to see more wines from Alsace, Burgundy and southwest France showing up. The issue with Burgundy is that it’s hard to pronounce in Chinese and the terroir is complicated - it’s like a big jungle - so it is hard to understand for many consumers.
Another trend I see is more distributors. I find that many come from Shanghai - they don’t have an office here, just a representative, and this can be a problem if they don’t have enough stock in the city, since it can take three or four days to get more.
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As a sommelier, how do you deal with customers in the restaurant?
My first question is, “What wine do you like?” With a specific dish, some sommeliers might recommend a particular wine, but that doesn’t mean there are not other options. Ten years ago in France, no one would pair red wine with fish, but now people propose Gamay and Syrah as options. I’m happy this happens
You also need to ask a lot of questions. The perception of aromas, dryness, and other factors is very subjective, so you need to know your clients. That’s the job of the sommelier - to find out what people like. If someone asks for a “heavy” wine, you still need to find out if they like tannins or not, how dry they want it, and so on. In China, for example, my experience is that many beginners don’t like tannins but they do like some acidity in their wine, so Syrah is a nice fit. Of course, it also depends on what food they are eating.
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Why do people in China like Bordeaux so much?
I wouldn’t say they like drinking Bordeaux, I would say they have an image of it as being the best in the world. If you did a blind tasting with Bordeaux and Burgundy, I’m sure many Chinese would pick Burgundy.
I can give you an analogy. When I lived in France, I didn’t try Australia or American wines, because everyone told me Chilean were the best New World ones and I simply accepted this. But by exploring, I have learned that there are good wines from many parts of the world.
The wine industry in China is heavily influenced by marketing and media. People believe what they read about wines without even trying them. I think this is especially problematic in China because the wine industry is fairly young.
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What kind of wine will you have in Maxim’s?
I’m trying to offer a large range of wines, both in terms of styles and regions. About 80 percent of the menu will be French and include 
wine I like, wine I feel my customers like, and wine that works with our food. I will have some Australian, Argentine, Italian, Chilean and South African wines, as well as Chinese wines, including Grace Vineyard and Dragon Seal. I hope to build my list up to five or six Chinese wines.
We will have about five wines by the glass in the brasserie on the first floor. Since it is summertime, we will probably have three whites and two reds, and change the wines every month so people can try new things.
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What is your experience with Chinese wines?
I heard many people say Chinese wines are terrible so I wasn’t disappointed when I first tried them. My view is that the wine industry is very new, so we need to give it a chance.
I like Grace Vineyard Chardonnay, especially the 2002. About a month ago, I tried a 1998 Cabernet Sauvignon from Changyu and I was impressed that even at ten years old it was very nice. I also recently had a chance to drink Dragon Seal wine out of the barrel from the 2006 harvest. I tried it with wine maker Jerome Sabate and liked the Syrah. I studied in Cotes du Rhone, so I appreciate Syrah and Grenache!
I’m sure the wine industry in China will get better and better. It’s no longer legal to blend in imported wine without mentioning this on the label and rules like this will be increasingly enforced. I’m sure in ten years we can talk about China being a positive player in the wine industry. They know it’s a big business, that more and more people are learning about wine, and that they will need to do better.
China also needs more qualified sommeliers. I’ve seen people with “sommelier” printed on their business cards who don’t know that Burgundy is made with Pinot Noir! You have all kinds of people here who have some easy-to-get diploma from overseas or the Internet. It would be great for China to have a government-sanctioned diploma.
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Because of your involvement with Ping Pong, you eat and drink at many different places. What are some favorites?
La Baie des Anges: I really enjoy the selection of the wine, though I find the place a bit too quiet and uncomfortable. Palette Vino [in Shunyi] is very nice and the new Enoteca [in The Place] looks good. But there are many, many other places I frequent.
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07.18.08
Posted in Jim Boyce at 4:08 pm by admin
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 of blind tastings, and more. (Note: Jebsen Fine Wines hosted Joseph’s visit and arranged for this interview.)
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Hong Kong dropped its wine tax in February and held a record-breaking wine auction in May; a Chinese company bought a Bordeaux winery last fall; China’s wine imports saw major growth in 2007; and so on. The past year has been a busy one for the local wine scene. What do you foresee over the next few years for the China market?
“I think anything you say here is banal because the China market is exploding but in an interesting way,” he says. Joseph contrasts China with Japan, which he says saw quick growth and a retreat: “Here it seems to be steadier growth and I think it will accelerate.”
“What is interesting about China, and what is not always appreciated by the outside world, is that you have a very wine-benign government. That’s relevant to Hong Kong which does nothing without a nod from Beijing. There has been for at least a decade a pro-wine approach by Beijing, which is also related to the bio field. China is getting out of grain bio-fuel as a part of the goal to be self-sufficient in grain, and part of this is to get people drinking non-grain alcohol. [This] is one of big boosts to the market here…”
“Distribution here is several light years ahead of, say, India, but is still relatively rudimentary as opposed to what it could or should be. The next phase is further development of the WalMarts and Tescos and of wine getting into the home and away from food and beverage [establishments].”
“Second, people introduced to wine through restaurants will drink more at home where it is more affordable. And third - and this is the elephant in the living room - is Chinese wineries and breweries getting into foreign wine importing. Everyone knows it’s going to happen; it’s just how and where. … If you start bringing these big guys into the picture, then you see something very substantial…”
“I also believe the [imported] bulk wine market will drop. What’s interesting is the leaps the Chinese wineries will go through. They don’t see a disconnect between building a wine industry to produce Chinese wine while using foreign grapes. But at a certain point, rules will be drawn.”
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Tourism and wine links are found throughout China, whether in terms of resorts at Bodega Langes (Hebei) and Chateau Junding (Shandong), more modest facilities at Grace Vineyard (Shanxi) and Yunnan Red (Yunnan), harvest festivals at wineries, or the upcoming inaugural visit by California-based China Wine Tours. If you updated your Wine Travel Guide to the World, what would you write about China?
“China is going to be huge in tourism in all sorts of ways - ingoing and outgoing. The wineries have deep pockets, so I think wine tourism will and should develop in China, and this itself will help to boost wine consumption and make drinking wine a lifestyle activity.”
“At that point, it will be interesting to see China overtake France, ironically, in the sophistication of its wine tourism, just as Argentina and Chile already have. France, despite developments in Napa Valley, in New Zealand, and elsewhere in the New World, has not learned tourism lessons significantly. Arguably, China is already offering better wine tourism than France.”
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You wrote in a blog post titled “Discovering the earth to be round” about the once near unanimity of the wine community that, “Wine of any kind can only be produced between the latitudes 
of 30 and 50 in the northern or southern hemispheres.” You then stated that Thai “Monsoon” and Brazilian “Sao Francisco” wines, created outside those latitudes, are “more pleasant drink than most cheap Bordeaux.” China also produces wine outside these latitudes. What are the prospects for such wines?
“The big problem we have here is I don’t know how many Chinese wines I’ve tasted. I know Grace, Sino-French, Dragon Seal and some others [use grapes grown in China], but how many use imported wine, I just don’t know.”
“Although India is way behind China in many ways, the best new latitude wines have come from there. Until very recently, the best would have been Grover Reserve Cabernet Shiraz, which did very well with Decanter [magazine], or Sula Sauvignon Blanc. There have been some broad issues at Grover, with recent tastings not as reliable as before, but I did taste a Sula Shiraz that was very impressive and I think there will be more of those wines. I’ve had some OK wines from Brazil but, again, quality control is not absolutely reliable. The problem of making wines in these new places is that you don’t always have best people doing it…”
“Overall, we need to ask more questions of wine. It doesn’t always have to be Bordeaux-style varieties in 75 centiliter bottles with corks.”
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What is your general impression of wines made in China and what do you see happening here?
“Grace is way ahead, as Sino-French is not really a commercial winery. Basically, you’re in a Canada pre-VQA situation [in which imported wine is often blended].”
“What I do very much appreciate about China compared to some other countries is that the Chinese know what they don’t know. Chinese wineries will admit to not making wine as good as it will be, to adding imported wine, and to being very pragmatic. What they will be doing in five years will be very different. A lot of Chinese are visiting other parts of world and looking at how things are being done in the wine sector. I would be very unsurprised to see some quantum leaps over next five years, a decade at the outside.”
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You launched the International Wine Challenge in 1983 with Charles Metcalfe and have been involved in tasting events worldwide, including in China and India. Yet you explained on your blog how easily tasters can be misled. How do you reconcile organizing such tastings on one hand and the reality of taster bias and error on the other?
Wine tasting is a very inexact science. On one hand, you are dealing with human beings who are subject to off-days and prejudices. That’s one reason I prefer a panel to a single critic, because by definition a single palate is subject to these potential preferences.
Wines also behave in various ways. You have the problem with corks, with which I’m getting more and more exasperated. If every time I open six bottles of wine and one of them is different, what does that mean in terms of wine competitions?
Wines also go through phases, getting better or worse as they evolve. And possibly wine tastes different depending on atmospheric pressure, so tasting in mountains is different than at sea level.
I acknowledge all of this, which is why I prefer competitions as a complement to single critics, and why I treat my competitions like the grand prix or tennis circuit. If [tennis player] Roger Federer or [golfer] Tiger Woods or [racecar driver] Michael Schumacher keep coming in the top five in different circumstances and against different opponents, we should have a good idea they must be pretty good. I never said the International Wine Challenge is definitive. We described the wine challenge as like the “Wimbledon of wine competitions.“
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If you could influence the wine world in three ways, what would they be?
What the planet needs is more open mindedness and acceptance that wine is a short word that covers a big subject. We accept that food runs from a sandwich to a soufflé, that you don’t stand in the street eating a soufflé and you don’t need a knife and fork for a sandwich. We need to have more acceptance that wine can come in a can, bag-in-box, cartons, and can be drunk in different ways. Let’s be much broader in our mindset and see China develop its own wine culture, not a French, English or American one.
I also hope we can get to the point where we learn to trust our own palates and judgments. The wine industry is the only industry in the world bar none which has handed itself over to an American critic. Why should that happen? We have Chateau Lafitte at one end and beverage wine at other end, and we don’t need to listen to American critics or classifications written in France 150 years ago to appreciate it. We need to understand that wine needs to be treated in a broader way. In 1997, when I was in China, I did comparative tasting of Mouton Cadet with Sprite and without Sprite, and I preferred it with Sprite. People should drink what they like and the way they like it.
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07.11.08
Posted in Jim Boyce at 6:10 pm by admin
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 red (Rhone Valley Costieres de Nimes), an Italian Pinot Grigio or Pinot Bianco, and a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
This week we’ll go with something a lit less exotic and a lot more popular: Beijing duck. Don’t forget that alongside the roasted meat, you have the accompanying pancakes, spring onions, and Hoison sauce.
Photo: Eat the Walk
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Posted in Jim Boyce at 3:58 pm by admin
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, Wine Politics: How Governments, Environmentalists, Mobsters, and Critics Influence the Wines We Drink. I asked him about blogs versus print media, wine’s carbon footprint, some good wines for newbies, his book, and more.
What difference is there between someone who blogs about wine as opposed to someone who writes about it for the traditional media?
Well, I suppose if the writer for traditional media were a staff writer, then they would get a salary and benefits!
I write for both my blog and print publications, I’d say that the two media are good in different ways. On my blog, I can post about an event quickly and conceivably run lots of photos or an interview or whatever. In print, the stories tend to be longer and therefore take more time to develop. But a writer can bring a sense of investigative journalism to both media–I have certainly picked up the phone to explore an issue for a blog posting and that sort of thing can actually lead to great postings. And it’s much faster than traditional media. It’s just a pity that the financial reward isn’t always there for blogging, particularly about wine.
One thing I love about blogging is the reader interactions that print media have trouble providing. Join the fray!
You have taught wine classes at New York University and University of Chicago. What is your approach to teaching students about wine? How do their views of wine different from when you went to school?
Well, the classes I teach are for adult learners, not undergrads. (Can you imagine if a parent opened a report card to find a class about wine appreciation? You’d better hope you got an A!)
We always taste wines, generally about seven to ten around a certain theme. I always try to link wine to broader themes be it history, pop culture, economics, politics–something you don’t have to be a wine geek to understand since that broadens our discussion about wine. And I always try to make it engaging and fun!
Your research with Pablo Paster on the “carbon footprint” of making and transporting wine finds that, “Drinking a wine made without agrichemicals, from larger format bottles, or wine that has traveled fewer miles is the more ‘green’ option.” This suggests the carbon- friendly choice for China is domestic wine (now 70 percent of the market) or wine (especially in bulk) imported from Australia or the Pacific coast as opposed to from Europe. What’s your take on this?
Exactly correct–those would be the lowest carbon footprint options.
One of the key takeaways from our research was that distance matters so drinking locally is a good option. But drinking wine from far-away places can also have a lower carbon footprint if it is sent via ship instead of truck (or air, the worst). Packaging also matters and the lighter it is, the better. In this regard, I am continually disappointed by the quality of wine in bag-in-box format. The technology is great but I just wish the wine would improve.
Even though it is important to think about your carbon footprint in all activities, wine drinking still is but an hors d’oeuvre in our overall carbon diet. Since wine often is unique and contributes to a culture of wine growing somewhere in the world, it may also pay to try to cut your carbon emissions in other parts of your life and just drink what you like.
Where do you stand on the cork versus screw cap debate?
I don’t like TCA. If it can be eliminated, then my enthusiasm for cork rises.
Hypothetical: You get an email from someone who has never drunk wine but wants you to suggest the first five bottles he or she should try. Knowing nothing about the person, what wines would you recommend?
Moscato d’Asti (from a small producer such as Ellio Perrone): perhaps the ultimate newbie wine! A German Riesling, such as Donnhoff: so many beautiful choices. A Loire Cabernet Franc from a natural producer such as Clos Roche Blanche: so much fun, so food friendly. A mature Bordeaux–see if they like the age thing. A 2005 red Burgundy to see if they like Pinot Noir, old-world style.
What should readers expect from your book, Wine Politics?
In it, I tell the story of wine in France and the United States through the lens of industry politics. Among other things, I discuss the struggle of how lines get drawn for growing areas, why small producers in America can be disadvantaged by the distribution system, and how critics serve as powerful gatekeepers.
Check it out!
What does Dr. Vino drink on a hot summer day? While blogging? To celebrate his first book?
On a hot summer day, I always like a dry rose from France. But I recently had some dry rieslings from Australia that were great, too! And for celebrations, Champagne is always a good way to go–Louis Roederer makes a very good non-vintage as does Pierre Peters, both about $30.
Cheers!
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07.10.08
Posted in Jim Boyce at 2:38 pm by admin
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 and Austrade for organizing it). More recently, I had a conference call with Carlos de Jesus, the communication and marketing director of major cork producer Amorim, for a much different perspective (thanks to China’s Amorim rep Ricardo Duarte for organizing it). Here are the highlights of my talk with de Jesus and his take on corks, screw tops, wine storage, the environmental impact of closures, and more.
We’ve had corked wine at numerous tastings I’ve attended in Beijing this year. Doesn’t this suggest the need for a better closure?
“As we get more scientific information, we will get better cork quality. There is a clear difference between more recent vintages that use cork treated and managed with updated technology versus those that use other cork.”
He asks people to remember that not all producers are equal: “With over 600 cork companies in the world, we can’t expect them to have products of the same quality, any more than we would expect it from car companies.”
But how can I, as a consumer, know which bottles have corks from quality producers?
“If we could, we would have everything clearly marked with the Amorim logo. [To the consumer], cork that comes out of a production line with million of dollars invested [in research and development] looks exactly the same as cork from a line with zero invested. Our problem is how to articulate this with both the wine maker and, much more difficult, the million and millions of consumers.”
He cites industry consolidation as one positive trend. “Every successful industry has had this process - just think how many car companies and mobile phone manufacturers we had. Consolidation is absolutely fundamental to weeding out these [poorer] companies.”
Wine professionals say, “Store wine on its side, so the cork won’t dry out.” Don’t screw caps eliminate this necessity?
“The point is more far-reaching than simply putting a bottle on its side. We are talking about processing, handling, storage and other issues that affect all closures. Does cork face more challenges than screw tops? I don’t know. I’ve seen a lot of dented screw tops. Also, who knows what happens to horizontally stored bottles with plastic stoppers? It’s worth asking questions about plastic stoppers that we ask about screw caps, since there are probably three to four times more of them in circulation.”
“We can’t expect to have perfection on this earth - expecting a closure to be perfect is no more realistic that expecting airplanes to never fall from the sky. But what is fundamental is to have solid risk management policies. That is the big difference between an industry like natural cork, which recognizes its problems and tries to fix them, versus the proponents for plastic corks and screw tops, who try to portray their products as flawless.”
Many wine newcomers in China don’t know how to use a corkscrew. Aren’t screw tops a good way to get them drinking wine?
“Producers of all kinds of drinks spend millions and millions of dollars on marketing to differentiate the moment of consumption, to create that feeling of drinking something special, something unlike opening a can of Coke or other common beverage. So the cork itself, the pop, that special-ness at the moment of consumption - to do away with that is to do away with something on which other industries spend a great deal of money.”
Wolf Blass and George Samios argue that wine ages under screw cap and they have samples from the 1970s to prove it. What is your reaction?
“Since the arguments for screw tops came out a few years ago, cork has improved considerably, but the laws of chemistry have not changed. Chemistry 101 says that any ongoing chemical reaction will have a different outcome if you fiddle with the influx of oxygen. To say wine will continue to evolve without oxygen, which is what you get under screw tops, is like saying you and I will continue to evolve without oxygen. Yes, we will continue to evolve, but is it in the right direction? [Laughs]
“The cork industry is accused of not being engaged in a scientific approach to this debate. But we hired the scientists, we started the research and development departments, we work with universities and scientific institutes around the world. Meanwhile, where are the scientists from the screw cap side of the debate? Let’s hear what they have to say.”
What kinds of measures are being taken to make corks more reliable?
“I want to emphasize that not all cork companies are the same - differentiation is absolutely crucial for us. At Amorim, we went back to the drawing board and looked at everything. We looked at the wood, we identified critical points for the presence of TCA (cork taint), we went into sophisticated chemical analysis and, on top of all that, we developed a reliable curative measure that attacks TCA when it exists.”
We made major investments totaling 55 million euros since 2000, including the launching of two plants, each the size of six or seven football fields, that are critical in the prevention of TCA. Going back to the chemical analysis, the implementation of gas chromatography has one very important and positive consequence - to remove sensory analysis from the equation, to remove the human element, and to replace it with much a more sophisticated risk management tool, chemical analysis. You fast forward to 2007 and we have had our best year in sales ever. We must be doing something right.
One argument for cork is that it is more environmentally friendly. Could you elaborate on this?
People are concerned about Co2 emissions and general environmental issues, and there is one closure that addresses these best - cork. We commissioned PriceWaterhouse to do a life-cycle assessment for natural cork, screw caps, and the like, and as everyone would expect from a natural renewable material, cork came out on top.
This makes cork an increasingly appealing proposition for consumers and wineries, and especially for retailers. When large stores and retail chains start asking for a Co2 footprint for their products, who do you think is going to have the best one? This is what increasingly moves the debate, especially in the UK and the US - how to minimize the environmental footprint. Aluminum manufacturing is the most environmentally intensive industry in the world; cork is the most environmentally friendly process in the world. You get CO2 retention, anti-erosion effects, biodiversity support, and a positive social impact on small communities. How can you beat that?
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07.09.08
Posted in Jim Boyce at 4:27 pm by admin
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 wine in university. Basically, I didn’t like beer.
I remember drinking Dragon Seal because it was the only thing available at my school. My most vivid memory was of my twenty-first birthday, in the mid-1990s. My first girlfriend and I drank a half bottle of Dragon Seal Rose but we had no glassware, so we used bowls that had some cooking oil residue in them. It left a tint on the water [laughs].
I started drinking foreign wine in 1997 when I worked for Air China and flew overseas. I also lived in California for four months in the late-1990s. I could buy white Zinfandel from the supermarket for 3.99!
The most impressive wine I tasted then was a 1994 Chianti Classico Riserva I brought back to China. It only cost 11 dollars, but I found it to be an elegant wine with layers of aromas and flavors. I wrote a review and described it as a “dancer on my palate.” I asked my colleagues to find more of it in California, but they kept bringing back different bottles!
How did you get professionally involved with wine?
I started writing about wine for an industry magazine called China Drinks about eight years ago. In 2002 and 2003, I wrote about wine for a publishing group called Trends, for magazines like Esquire and Good Housekeeping.
I also started my own nonprofit wine club in Beijing in 2001. It was called Frankie’s Club - hey, it was easier with that name!
We held a tasting every month with 10 to 40 people and I sent out an email newsletter twice per week. The newsletter included summaries of the tastings, notes about the wines we tried, comments other people made about the wines, and so on.
I soon realized that while it is easy to manage a party with 20 people, doing one for 100 people is very difficult, so it was going to be impossible to make money from the club.
In 2005, I started to think about how I could earn a living in the wine field. One way was with the media, so in 2005 I got involved in Decanter’s Chinese edition. For 10 months, I wrote articles and helped do the initial marketing. The problem was that the owners wanted to keep costs low. For example, the first three issues had a buyer’s guide, but the prices were listed in pounds, not renminbi!
You are now doing consulting. What is your take on the market?
China’s market works in terms of wineries, sales, and distribution, but the problem is service - finding people who know quality wine or restaurants that are able to properly serve and recommend wine. There is also no real marketing research or branding.
I am focusing on the service end. My company’s core activities are promotion and market research, which includes studies of Chinese consumers. We are in contact with wine organizations from other countries, such as France and Italy, to help promote them here.
You find the market in China divided into two kinds of distributors. On one hand, you have Summergate, Montrose, Torres, ASC, and so on focused on selling foreign wines to foreigners, such as clients at five-star hotels. They don’t have a problem communicating with these consumers because a majority of them are foreigners who know something about wine.
On the other hand, you have distributors who are selling wines to Chinese people, with Aussino being the biggest one. If you want to consider potential, you need to look at this Chinese market.
The economy is growing and people are drinking more wine. Look at the major cities: in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, annual consumption per capita is about 2.6 liters per person. That’s a lot, given the overall average for China is 0.5 liters and five years ago was 0.3 liters. We see the market growing, including for foreign wine, even though most wine being drunk is Chinese.
Let’s say I’m in China, I’m new to wine, and I want to buy five wines to try. What would you recommend?
I always recommend taking a systematic approach. I suggest a case of wine that includes wines of different varietals, countries, and styles.
I would probably recommend a Muscato or a sweet sparkling wine, a White Zinfandel, and a semi-sweet German Riesling. On the dry side, I would pick an un-oaked or slightly oaked New World Chardonnay, a lighter fruitier New World wine like an Australian Merlot or a Pinot Noir, and a more tannic wine like a heavy Cabernet Sauvignon or a hearty Shiraz. This mix will help people decide some of their basic preferences - white or red, dry or sweet, fruity or heavy. They they can do some more exploring.
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07.07.08
Posted in Jim Boyce at 5:23 pm by admin
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 find it in the middle, nestled among the leaves, in that section labeled “Nava Valley.” Just look for the biggest bunch of grapes.
The map comes from the Web site of Chateau Junding, an operation near Penglai in Shandong province, that serves as both winery and resort. The winery is backed at least partly by COFCO (China National Cereals, Oil, and Foodstuffs Corporation), well-known for its Great Wall wine brand. According to the Web site, “Combining trade, industry, finance, information, service and scientific research, [COFCO] spans over various fields like agriculture, food industry, hotel and real estate…”
Does this sound like the kind of operation to quickly produce wines that cost more than USD100 per bottle, as one finds at Chateau Junding? As a matter of fact, yes. So, let me rephrase that question: Does this sound like the kind of operation to quickly produce wines worth more than USD100 per bottle? Well, that’s a trickier one, and I hope to soon try these wines and give you an answer.
By the way, a source tells me that the “Nava” designation comes from the historical town Nanwang.
See also:
A Magical Grape-Growing Shore“: A Penglai page that describes local wine initiatives with some unique language, i.e. “sea breezes moistened by the breast of the Pacific.”
Famous City of High-quality Grape and Wine: Another Penglai page, this one largely focused on grape-growing conditions in the area.
Wine Spectating: A that’s Shanghai article by Bob Wise, who visited Chateau Junding, among other wineries.
China Travels Enlighten Lawmaker: A news story about a California assemblyman’s visit to China, including “Nava Valley.”
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07.04.08
Posted in Jim Boyce at 4:44 pm by admin
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 as Peking duck, Sichuan chicken, and dim sum, but first up is the delicacy that gets tourist cameras clicking - scorpions on a stick.
Why?
To be honest, because I pledged today on my nightlife blog beijingboyce.com to monitor foreign scorpion-on-a-stick coverage during the Olympics and thus this is the only photo I have handy.
I’m dedicating this feature to Singapore-based Ch’ng Poh-Tiong, publisher of The Wine Review and founder of the International Congress of Chinese Cuisine and Food. The ICCCW met in Beijing in May for its first conference and I’ll soon have a (very belated) write-up about a weekend spent searching for good wine-Chinese food matches.
(Photo: MH)
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07.03.08
Posted in Jim Boyce at 2:19 pm by admin
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 China, it gets a great deal of media attention. What makes it such an interesting topic?
I think one reason is the nature of wines themselves– they are very diverse and come with many stories. Also, many upper-class and middle-class Chinese have lived abroad and acquired some Western habits when it comes to eating and drinking, so they have an interest in wine. Finally, China’s booming economy has meant more frequent business activity between Chinese and foreigners and they have influenced each other. For example, Chinese have become more interested in wine, while foreigners have become more interested in Chinese food.
For many people in China, the definition of wine seems to be “dry, red and French.” Do you think this trend will continue? What wine trends do you see emerging in China?
There are historical reasons for the popularity of French wine. At the same time, the French have done a lot of wine promotion in China. Even irregular wine drinkers here have the idea that wine should be dry, red, and French.
As people learn more about wine, they will discover different wine cultures. The past two years have seen many wine shops, importers, and websites emerge. The abolition of the wine tax in Hong Kong is stimulating more competition in the wine business. Because of all these things, consumers will benefit from a more diversified wine sector, with more tastings, dinners, and other activities.
This relates to your second question: one of the trends is this diversification. I also think that more and more regular wine drinkers will increase their focus on mid-price wines and lessen it on Grand Cru Classe wine from Bordeaux. And for house wine, even the “rich” will stick to wines that offer the best value for money.
You attend many wine tastings. What are you three favorite events of the past two years?
There are too many to list here. For me, it is exciting to attend these tastings and to find wine I really enjoy. Luckily, I have the opportunity to taste fine wines and rare vintages even if I can’t afford them.
The latest tasting I attended was the Chateau Haut-Brion lunch organized by ASC at the newly opened Maison Boulud restaurant in Beijing. The wine and food went very well together. I tasted Chateau Bahans Haut-Brion 2003, Chateau La Mission Haut-Brion 2002, and Chateau Haut-Brion 1995.
I was also very impressed by the tastings of Penfolds Grange and Chateau Margaux organized in May by Ch’ng Poh Tiong, the well-known Singapore wine critic and publisher. The tastings were part of the ICCCW [International Congress of Chinese Cuisine and Wine] launched by him. Penfolds’ Peter Gago and Chateau Margaux’s Paul Pontallier hosted the tastings respectively. It was more than just an enjoyable event; it was a rare chance to learn about and know deeply wine from different vintages.
Another memorable event happened last October when Aussino held a wine dinner in Jaan, the French restaurant in Raffles Hotel Beijing. We enjoyed Italian wines while eating in-season truffle and listening to an Italian tenor. Each wine came from a unique region of Italy, so we could experience many different styles of wine in just one night.
You interview many people from foreign wine producers. What usually surprises them about the China market? What kinds of questions do they ask you?
They are often surprised that many wine lovers in China are very knowledgeable about wine and keen on what’s happening in other wine-producing countries. In terms of questions, mostly they ask things such as, “What kinds of Chinese food would pair well with this wine?“
How did you get interested in wine?
I was invited on an unforgettable food and wine tour of Provence and Burgundy by the French Tourist Office and Sopexa in June 2005. I started from with Rosé in Provence and fell in love with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Burgundy. I was not a regular alcohol drinker at all before the trip, but it was amazing to discover the rich aromas and flavors of wine. Though I could not yet distinguish all of the smells and tastes, I was totally fascinated by them. After I returned to China, I got to know people from ASC and was invited to their tastings. I also got to know many wine experts like Frankie Zhao, Ma Huiqin, and Li Demei.
At that time, I was a food editor at Modern Weekly. I started to include more content about wine in the publication. In late 2005, one of my best friends, who worked at Trends Group, told me that Food & Wine magazine would launch in China in 2006. I thought being a wine editor was probably the best way to learn about wine. Since Trends Group is the most established media group, I was confident about the future of the magazine and I applied for the job. I think I made the right choice. As wine editor, I was supposed to organize a monthly blind tasting with my colleagues from the very beginning. And it was also the blind tasting with the wine experts at home and abroad that made me learn so quickly.
If you could have one bottle of sparkling wine, one bottle of white wine, and one bottle of red wine that is available in Beijing, which would you choose?
To be honest, I always try to find wine that offers the best value for money for everyday drinking, since my job allows me the chance to taste the best wines. I find the Food & Wine blind tastings are the best way for me to find these value wines. I also ask my friends for advice on wine.
I only drink sparkling wine with friends or my family at dinner. Without food, I will have a glass or two at most. With food, it is easy to match with different flavors. Currently, I prefer Marcarini Moscato D’Asti, a food-friendly wine that even beginners will easily accept.
For white, I find that Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, and Pinot Gris go well with cold dishes in the summer. I have several bottles of Arabella Sauvignon Blanc 2007 from South Africa, which costs around RMB60.
And for red, I recently bought some bottles of Bourgueil at RMB95, which is a quite good price.
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07.02.08
Posted in Jim Boyce at 3:00 pm by admin
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 over a glass of wine. I’ve listed those interviews below and will embed them on the site’s front page as part of upcoming upgrades that include a system to search China-based wine distributors, Chinese-English translations to make being a consumer easier, a feature called “my top five wines” to see what people are drinking in China, and some fun multimedia. In the meantime, here is that list (in chronological order):
Peter Gago
Penfolds chief wine maker
Gaia Gaja
Gaja winery
Frederic Choux
DCT Wines owner (Dalian)
Group interview
With 20 winery representatives
Guy Wittich
Event organizer, consumer (Taipei)
Robert Parker
Writer, critic
(translation)
Jenn Hinkle
Event organizer, consumer (Beijing)
Pat Fromm
Consumer, ex-industry (Beijing)
Wolf Blass / George Samios
Wine maker / Foster’s PR
Frederic Engerer
Chateau Latour president
(translation)
Alberto Fernandez
Torres China GM (Shanghai)
Steve Clarke
China Silk owner (Xinjiang)
Tim Hanni
Educator
Jancis Robinson
Writer, critic
(translation)
John Gai
Palette Wines owner (Beijing)
Ethan Perk
Jebsen Deputy GM China (Beijing)
Zhang Ning
Yunnan Red wine maker (Yunnan)
Shan Shumin
Yunnan Red GM (Yunnan)
Wu Kegang
Yunnan Red CEO (Yunnan)
Chantal Chi
Writer (Shanghai)
Jeremy Oliver
Wine writer, critic
Mark Curtis
China Wine Tours leader
Eddie Osterland
Sommelier, educator
Frank Siegel
Event organizer (Beijing)
Judy Leissner
Grace Vineyard CEO (Shanxi)
Don St. Pierre, Jr.
ASC managing director (Shanghai)
Dan Siebers
Summergate N. China manager (Beijing)
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07.01.08
Posted in Jim Boyce at 4:41 pm by admin
[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 newsletter Nat Decants (see her biography here). I asked MacLean, who hails from Canada, about how the palates of professionals and amateurs match up, how cultural background affects wine critics, the pros and cons of the Internet for wine consumers, and more.
In Red, White, and Drunk All Over, you state that you taste 3,000 wines per year, while a critic such as Robert Parker tastes as many as 10,000. Given this, how relevant are the palates of professional tasters to those of casual wine drinkers, especially as the former tend to spit wine and try it without food?
You’ve hit on the rub of the problem! To find good, reasonably priced wines, you need to taste many. I recommend just one or two wines for every 20 that I sample. But tasting large groups of wines does tend to numb the palate and take wine out of its intended context of a meal. However, I think that wine writers still do readers a service by trying lots of wines and weeding out the bad ones. The trick really is to find a critic whose palate is similar to your own so that you can trust his or her choices.
Your book covers a feud between American critic Robert Parker and British critic Jancis Robinson, and how each tended to be backed by his or her compatriots. This is intriguing since I sense the cultural background of wine writers will affect the Chinese market. To what extent do you think wine writers are influenced by their own cultures?
Wine writers are extremely influenced by their own cultures. Those of us who grow up in North America aren’t often exposed to wine until we’re adults. And even then, it’s New World wines that are usually our first wines. Contrast that to someone growing up in the U.K. or Europe where it is much more likely to be part of the family dinner.
You wrote about working with Randall Graham and his team at Bonny Doon Vineyards in California. How difficult was it to grasp and translate the technical side of making wine into terms accessible for readers?
The technical side is always a challenge, especially when you don’t have a chemistry degree. Most readers want to learn about the process but you must be careful that the technical details don’t derail the narrative. Good wine writing is good storytelling: you need to make readers curious, amused, and enlightened.
Due to the Internet, wine consumers have more access than ever to information. Your free e-newsletter, with more than 87,000 subscribers, demonstrates this power. For consumers, what are the pros and cons of getting wine information from the Internet?
The Internet means that wine information is easy to access anytime: you no longer have to be part of the industry or even take a course to be knowledgeable. The downside is that there is a lot of inaccurate and unclear information posted online. You need to sort through the various sites, blogs, and e-newsletters to find those you trust.
If you could change one thing about the wine industry in order to get more people to try wine, what would it be?
I’d make in-store sampling more prevalent. Wine is such a mysterious product to buy for many people. Most of us decide based on whether we like the cute squirrel or the ancient castle on the label. You need to taste wine to know if you like it. More sampling programs would take so much of the guess work and intimidation from the buying experience.
You are stuck on a desert island and allowed to have three bottles of wine - what would they be (we’ll say that the water in the lagoon is cool enough to chill Champagne)?
Domaine Romanee-Conti: all three bottles because it would be sad to have just one or even two if I knew I could have three.
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Posted in Jim Boyce at 4:37 pm by admin
[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 – Pelee Island, Strewn, and Jiamin.
Before the “he said, she said” part, first the wines: I’ve always considered Pelee Island an OK winery with colorful birds on its labels, so I was pleasantly surprised by the Pinot Noir Reserve 2006 VQA. This wine had light cherry and berry aromas and flavors, and might go well with Beijing duck. I also enjoyed the relatively crisp Pelee Island 2004 ice wine, with its blend of Vidal (86%) and Riesling grapes. The nose had lychee and apricot aromas, while the body had apricots and a hint of green apple.
The Strewn ice wines were more viscous, with some having an initial “oily” smell that reminded me of strong Rieslings, though these morphed into fruitier aromas. Both the flagship Strewn 2004 and Palatine Hill 2004 have ample apricot and other fruit aromas and flavors. (”A lot of people can’t tell the difference between them,” we learned.) Meanwhile, Strewn’s Cabernet Franc Icewine 2004 is a honey-peach color with lighter fruit flavors - think cherries and berries. Several patrons said they found these wines the most complex.
Jiamin offered the widest selection, with two reds and five sweets. The Summerhill Pyramid Winery “Platinum Series” Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 had OK fruit but an unbalanced body and astringent finish. Among the sweeter wines, my favorite was the company’s 2006 Chardonnay ice wine VQA, though I found it syrupy.
Stickier still were distributor-patron relations at the Jiamin table. The key incident seemed to be when a patron found no one around and poured her own wine, causing a Jiamin rep to rush over and deliver a “we don’t do that here” reprimand. Unfortunately, it didn’t appear to be an isolated incident, as about a half-dozen other patrons complained about the reps. For their part, one rep said the patrons were rude and that Beijing was the lone city visited that had “wine snobs.”
Here’s my take: I saw the Jiamen table unattended several times as the reps loaded up at the buffet, at least one rep couldn’t answer questions such as the grape variety used in some of the wines, and I heard remarks such as “talk to the guy at the other table, because he knows all about ice wine” and “[Our winemaker] is a James Bond-type of ladies man.”
I’m going with the customers on this dispute. But I do understand the reps were at the tail end of a series of tastings, so let’s chalk it up to exhaustion. Besides, the “James Bond” comment is no surprise given that the back label of one Jiamen wine starts, “[The winemaker] is a charmer of people and a lover of ladies.”
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