Grape Wall of China

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

China Bulk Wine Imports 2011: Spain tops Chile, Now Biggest Source

By Jim Boyce Bottled wine imports have risen steadily, year after year, with France and Australia long the top two sources and Spain, Italy, Chile and the United States rounding out the “big six” that account for ~90% of the market. (For more details on the 2011 stats, see here). The world of imported bulk [...]

Brazilian wines in China: Miolo wines now available in Beijing

~ Beijing Brazilian restaurant Alameda now has wines to match its food: a sparkling, a white and three reds from the Miolo operation in South America’s largest nation are now on the menu. The lineup includes: Terranova Moscatel Sparkling Wine (rmb295) Miolo Reserve Chardonnay 2009 (rmb260) Miolo Reserve Tannat 2010 (rmb260) Miolo ‘Lote 43′ Cabernet-Merlot [...]

China Wine Import Stats for 2011: France Crushes the Competition (Again)

By Jim Boyce New year, old story in the China wine scene as France again lengthened its lead in terms of both volume and value when it comes to bottled imports. Overall, the market soared to 241 million liters in 2011, up 65 percent over 2010, according to Customs data. (Note: the following numbers were [...]

Lucky charm? New wine from Grace Vineyard features screw cap

~ Grace Vineyard has a new wine and it features the rare use, at least in China, of screw caps — see here for another example in Treaty Port. First, the wine: it is called Tao Fu and, says CEO Judy Leissner, “refers to the peach wood charms hung on doors during the New Year” [...]

China repeat? Entries for 2012 Decanter World Wine Awards open

By Jim Boyce Like getting a good score from Robert Parker, doing well in the Decanter World Wine Awards can be a useful marketing tool, and that includes for wineries in China. Witness Ningxia’s Helan Qing Xue — when its Jia Bei Lan pulled a stunner last year and became the first Chinese wine to [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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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