Grape Wall of China

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

China wine labels: Does ‘E-mail’ wine deserve save or delete?

~ Forget wine scores out of 20 or 100. Here’s a bottle of “E-mail” Dry Red Wine from Great Wall that you could simply designate as “save” or “delete“. Or stick in the spam box. Then again, if you rate it high, it only seems fair to forward it as a recommendation. I spotted this [...]

Australia Wine Annual: Jeremy Oliver releases Chinese-language edition, to host Beijing events

Writer Jeremy Oliver is doing a series of events to launch the Chinese-language version of his 2012 Australian Wine Annual. In Beijing, Oliver will be at Pudao Wines on December 3 from 3:30 3 Pm to 6 5 PM for a free tasting of eight Australian wines from d’Arenberg, Yalumba, Grosset, Hewitson, Moss Wood, Rockford, [...]

Bidder up: Notes from a Bordeaux-heavy wine auction in Beijing

~ By Jim Boyce I went to a wine auction in Beijing on Saturday because: a) fellow Grape Wall guy Nicolas Carre invited me, b) the venue, Zun Club near Workers Stadium, is across the street from my apartment, and c) I have not attended such a sale before. This one was organized by magazine [...]

Another French connection? Re a Cheval Blanc vineyard in China

By Jim Boyce A very famous Bordeaux Château is about to announce a major investment in China.’ This was Li De Mei’s tantalising sign-off at the end of perhaps the most relevant of many presentations given at a recent get-together of international wine luminaries in Hong Kong, WineFuture. Could this be connected to the rumour [...]

China winery photo essay: Great Wall in Hebei Province

By Jim Boyce Great Wall is part of COFCO, a Fortune Global 500 company, and produces over 100 million bottles of wine per year. COFCO also buys wineries overseas, with relatively recent purchases in Chile and France, sponsors major events, including the Beijing Olympics and Shanghai World Expo, and is involved in everything from wine [...]

North by Northwest China Wine Challenge: The Winners

~ Fourteen judges gathered in the Hilton Beijing last Saturday to try two dozen Chinese wines from the north and northwestern regions of the nation. To the best of my knowledge, the wines were made solely with grapes grown in China. The operations included Grace Vineyard and Chateau Rongzi from Shanxi, Jade Valley from Shaanxi, [...]

North by Northwest Challenge: The Judges

Fourteen judges tasted 24 wines during the North by Northwest China Wine Challenge held yesterday morning at the Hilton Beijing. The wines hailed from Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, and, at least for me, demonstrated the increasing dynamism of the domestic wine scene. The process of adding scores, deciphering handwriting and triple-checking [...]

Grape Wall Challenge III: Best white wines under RMB100

I already covered the top five red wines from the third annual Grape Wall Challenge, held on Tuesday in Modo restaurant in Beijing. Now it is time for the white wines. As noted before, the Grape Wall Challenge features consumers as judges and focuses on bottles that retail for under rmb100. Judges were asked to [...]

Grape Wall Challenge III: Best red wines under RMB100

~ The third annual Grape Wall Challenge, held on Tuesday in Beijing, saw Chinese consumers sniff, sip and score nearly 40 wines — split between red and white — that retail for less than rmb100 per bottle. This year’s Grape Wall Challenge was at Modo restaurant in Sanlitun Village (3F), which provided staff support and [...]

Grape Wall Challenge III results delayed: Because…

… one of the wines that scored very high turns out to have a regular price that is not under rmb100. It looks like there might have been a mix-up by the distributor between the regular price and a ~rmb75 special deal it is running at Jenny Lou’s. Please bear with me until tomorrow while I [...]

Wine Future Hong Kong 2011: Top 20 Tweets from Day Three

~ Wine Future Hong Kong 2011 ended today and — based on reading a few thousand tweets from afar — pretty much turned out to be the insular love-in I expected. Oh, well. Anyway, while the world’s wine elite were in Hong Kong talking about Chinese consumers, we were in Beijing doing our annual Grape [...]

Wine Future Hong Kong 2011: Top 20 Tweets from Day Two

~ I spent most of today scurrying about Beijing in preparation for The Grape Wall Challenge tomorrow, all while the Jancis truthers ran amok in Hong Kong. But that didn’t stop me, one hour ago, from ordering a pint, sitting down, and skimming through Wine Future tweets that used the hash tag #wfhk11. (By the [...]

Wine Future Hong Kong 2011: Top 20 Tweets from Day One

~ By Jim Boyce A “who’s who” of writers, wine makers et al were on hand as Wine Future Hong Kong 2011 started today. Whether you think the right people are panelists or there should be more local representation, whether you expect the event to be informative and transformational or an ivory tower love-in, expect [...]

Customs vs customers: How much wine entering China actually gets drunk?

~ By Jim Boyce We have seen more than a decade of media stories about the phenomenal wine import growth in China. But rare are those that address whether the amounts of wine recorded by China Customs jibe with the amount of wine purchased — let alone drunk — by consumers. For example, bottled wine [...]

Bunches: What does this one vine say about China’s wine industry?

~ By Jim Boyce During a tour of some wine operations in Ningxia two years ago, Isak Pretorius of the Australian Wine Research Institute was surprised to find 43 grape bunches on this one vine. We saw plenty of heavily loaded vines during that trip, vines that elsewhere might only have a fraction as many [...]

The North by Northwest Challenge: In Search of China’s Best Wines

North by Northwest: In Search of China’s Best Wines Hilton Beijing, November 12, 2011 ~ The North by Northwest Challenge will be held at the Hilton Beijing on November 12 to taste some of the best wines made in China. The event will feature wines made solely with Chinese grapes and, as the title suggests, [...]

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  • 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