Grape Wall of China

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

Double up: China Wine & Spirits acquires DT Asia

By Jim Boyce China Wines & Spirits (CWS) acquired fellow distributor DT Asia last month and while the news is a bit dated I thought I would post it anyway. From the press release: “[The move] reinforces CWS position on the market, with a larger and stronger portfolio of Icon brands such as Champagne Deutz, [...]

Breathing room: China’s 1421 ‘traceable’ wine at Great Hall of The People

~ By Jim Boyce When Randy Lee Svendsen recently asked me to join a group of 12 at the Great Hall of The People to talk about the wine brand 1421, I figured I would be at one of dozens of tables. I wasn’t. There was only that one table in that huge hall — [...]

Bull shifts: Modo in Beijing switches to all-Spain wine lineup

~ By Jim Boyce Beijing restaurant Modo has taken the bull by the horns and stuck an all-Spanish lineup into its two enomatic machines. Modo will rotate about 50 wines through the 16 slots over the next few months. To the best of my knowledge, this Sanlitun-based restaurant was the first to use cash card-based [...]

Les vins Chinois meilleurs que Bordeaux?

~ By Nicolas Carre Depuis le jeudi 15 decembre, lendemain d’une dégustation banale, mais toute aussi sérieuse, organisée a Pékin, le consommateur s’interroge : « Les vins Chinois sont ils effectivement meilleurs que les Bordeaux ? ». La dégustation était co-organisée par le blog grapewallofchina dans le seul but de permettre aux consommateurs et amateurs [...]

Where is the love? Ningxia and Bordeaux wines the judges actually *liked*

~ We asked the judges in this week’s Ningxia vs Bordeaux Challenge to rank ten wines from first to last in terms of quality (see results here). But as in the Grape Wall Challenge, we also asked them how much they liked or disliked each wine. The judges had four options: “love it”, “like it”, [...]

Was the Ningxia-Bordeaux Challenge unfair to French wines? Non

~ It depends on your perspective. Different wine contests are designed to discover different things. Our Grape Wall Challenge at Modo asked Chinese consumers to judge wines that retail for under rmb100 and to tell us what they liked. The more recent North by Northwest Challenge at Hilton Beijing asked three groups — wine experts, [...]

Grace under pressure: Ningxia tops Bordeaux in Beijing wine challenge

~ By Jim Boyce Chinese wines took the top four spots in the Ningxia vs Bordeaux Challenge held this afternoon in Beijing. The event featured ten wines — five from Ningxia and five from Bordeaux. They were blind-tasted by ten judges — five from China and five from France. I helped organize the event with [...]

The Wine Republic to distribute Jia Bei Lan in China

~ By Jim Boyce China-based importer and distributor The Wine Republic has reached a deal to handle the brand Jia Bei Lan from Ningxia-based winery Helan Qing Xue, says company CEO Campbell Thompson. Demand has been growing for Jia Bei Lan, particularly for its 2009 vintage, after strong performances in several wine contests, including Decanter’s [...]

Tóu to tête: Bordeaux-Ningxia Wine Challenge set for Wednesday in Beijing

~ The Ningxia-Bordeaux Wine Challenge will be held on Wednesday, December 14, in Beijing. Bordeaux wines have long held the highest status in China. Ningxia wines are getting increasing praise at home and in international competitions and publications. And the Ningxia wines in the challenge tend to involve wine makers trained in Bordeaux and/or the styles common [...]

Top news: Grace to use screw caps on entry-level red

Shanxi-based Grace Vineyard has been experimenting with screw caps for several years and has decided to use them for its entry-level red, says CEO Judy Leissner. Grace’s entry-level red retails for ~rmb60 and the first screw cap bottles should be out next February or March. The national distributor is Torres China. Treaty Port, an operation [...]

Hello Cabernet: Japan-based Enoteca expands presence in China

~ While in search of the new Hello Kitty restaurant late last week, I stumbled on what I believe is the first Beijing retail outlet  by Enoteca, the Japan-based wine importer and retailer. Enoteca, not to be confused with the Shanghai-Beijing wine bar chain that previously went by that name but now goes by Enoterra [...]

Penfolds Bin 620: Available in Beijing from this week at rmb6840 per bottle

By Jim Boyce When Penfolds chose Shanghai for the launch of its ”Bin 620″ Cabernet-Shiraz 2008 last month, the first wine under that label since 1966, it inspired plenty of comments, ranging from those who saw it as a respectful nod to the growing market for Australian fine wine in this country to those who [...]

Not-so-idle speculation: Wine, scarcity and China

By Jim Boyce Four people have asked me in the past few weeks for info about how to buy from ten to fifty cases of a specific wine. Is that wine from longstanding Bordeaux favorite Chateau Lafite Rothschild? No. Is it from new Burgundy darling DRC Romanee-Conti? No. How about the new and pricey Yao [...]

Aussie wines in China: Moss Wood, Henschke, Hewitson, and more

~ By Jim Boyce Pudao Wines in Beijing held a free tasting of Australian wines on Saturday as writer Jeremy Oliver visited ahead of the launch of the upcoming Chinese-language edition of his Australian Wine Annual. The bottles were supplied by China-based distributors The Wine Republic, Torres and Summergate, with the latter closely tied to [...]

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  • 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

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