Grape Wall Challenge II: Consumer picks for red, white wines under RMB100

The second annual Grape Wall Challenge, held on June 24 at Maison Boulud, saw the judges blind taste 18 white wines in the morning and 22 red wines in the afternoon. Each judge circled one of the following choices for each wine: “I love it“, “I like it“, “I don’t like it“, and “I hate it.”

Below are the wines that ranked “I liked it” or higher overall by the consumers. Below that is a list of venues or websites where the wines are available. The venues tend to be more specific to Beijing, as this is where the contest was held, though most major distributors’ wines are available in dozens of cities throughout China.

More details on the judges as well as the expert picks, event photos, and analysis of the results will be posted this week. The event sponsors were Maison Boulud, which provided the venue, staff support, and lunch, and Winpact, which provided gifts for the consumer judges.

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WHITE WINES

Of the 18 wines in the white wine portion, nine wines received an “I liked it” ranking or higher from the consumer judges.

1

Obikwa Sauvignon Blanc 2009, South Africa, from French Wine Paradox, RMB75

Henri Ehrhart Pinot Blanc 2008, France, from CMP, RMB99

3

Double Bay Semillon-Chardonnay 2007, Australia, from Links, RMB95

4

Santa Rita 120 Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Chile, from ASC, RMB87

5

Black Wing Chardonnay 2008, Australia, from Sea & Sun, RMB75

Callia Alta Chardonnay-Torrontes 2009, Argentina, from Torres, RMB83

Ampakama Viognier 2008, Argentina, from Enoteca, RMB98

8

Martins Andino White 2009, Argentina, from French Wine Paradox, RMB65

Las Condes Chardonnay 2009, Chile, from East Meets West, RMB86

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RED

Of the 22 wines in the contest, the following received an “I liked it” ranking or higher from the consumer judges.

1

Black Wing Shiraz 2006, Australia, from Sea & Sun, RMB87

2

Finca el Origen Malbec 2008, Argentina, from Aussino, RMB90

3

Las Condes Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, Chile, from East Meets West, RMB86

Two Oceans Shiraz 2009, South Africa, from ASC, RMB84

Sacred Hill Shiraz 2008, Australia, from Torres, RMB87

Sacred Hill Cabernet-Merlot 2008, Australia, from Torres, RMB87

Mont Besson Syrah-Grenache 2008, France, from Globus, RMB88

Paso del Sol Merlot 2008, Chile, from DT Asia, RMB90

Monastier Shiraz 2009, France, from DT Asia, RMB98

Fortant Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, France, from ASC, RMB92

Santa Carolina Carmenere 2008, Chile, from Aussino, RMB98

12

Retamo Bonarda-Malbec 2009, Argentina, from Summergate, RMB89

Ramirana Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, Chile, from Top Cellar, RMB94

El Vuelo Merlot 2009, Chile, from Links, RMB98

Manon Tempranillo 2008, Spain, from Globus, RMB99

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Where to buy

Venues or websites where the above wines can be purchased, with more to come. (Note: I found about half of the above wines during a visit to Jenny Lou’s in Lido in Beijing, many of them at prices lower, and in some cases on special at up to RMB20 off, than on the distributors’ Web sites. – JB)

ASC: Available at Carrefour, Auchon, and Jenny Lou’s in Beijing.

Aussino: Finca el Origen is available here; both it and Santa Carolina available at the Aussino shop at 1F, Regent Land apartments, 66 Workers Stadium North Road, across from the east entrance of Swissotel.

CMP: Available at Boucherie Michel shops in Beijing.

DT-Asia: Available at Carrefour and Auchon

East Meets West: Available via the Web site, though it is currently under renovation.

Enoteca: Available at the company’s three wine bars in Shanghai and Beijing or this online store.

French Wine Paradox: Available at Carrefour.

Links: Available at Jenny Lou’s in Beijing.

Globus: Available in Shanghai on Ferguson Lane, 376 Wukang Road, near Hunan Road (021 6466 8969) and at Highstreet Loft 283, Jianguo Xi Road, Building 5, near Xiangyang Road (021 5466 1575). In Beijing, contact 5206-3020 or infobj@globus-wine.com.

Sea & Sun: Available at Jenny Lou’s in Beijing.

Summergate: Available via the company Web site.

Top Cellar: Available at the company’s shops in Beijing and Shanghai.

Torres: Available via the company Web site.

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6 Comments

  1. @ M-dawg,

    Agreed, just haven’t had the time to do that, but about half of these wines, including many of the top scorers, can be found in Jenny Lou’s.

    Cheers, Jim

  2. Appreciate this list. Are Chinese wines not in the tasting or none was good enough to the judges? (I can believe it. Certainly for under 100 RMB.)

  3. it would be cool to get the shopping list in the other direction — aka list a few of the major shops and the wines available at each. like

    Jenny Lou’s
    Wine A
    Wine B
    Wine C

    Carrefour
    Wine A
    Wine B
    Wine C

    The reason being that I’m a casual wine consumer and I won’t go out of my way to go wine shopping (or order a case on line), but I will be looking for these wines when I shop in places like Jenny Lou’s and Carrefour.

  4. These months is promotion period, the competition is intense esepecil in the supermarket which focus to the foreign customer.

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