ASC to open Wine Gallery; Changyu AFIP, Wine & Wine nearby

Wine importer and distributor ASC will open The Wine Gallery late next week in Swire Village North in Sanlitun. This long-awaited three-level venue will include a cellar, training room, lounge, VIP area, and terrace. It follows on The Wine Residence that ASC opened in Shanghai two years ago.

The Wine Gallery is designed to handle everything from wine education to corporate events. Like its Shanghai sibling, it will also have a membership angle. States an ASC press release: “The Wine Gallery provides wine lockers with ideal storage conditions to store collections or share fine wines with friends or business associates. Members will also be invited to exclusive wine events, such as Wine Auctions, en primeur campaign, back vintage tastings, etc.”

The Wine Gallery joins a pair of other nearby major wine projects that have opened in the past year. Changyu AFIP opened in the China View complex on Workers Stadium East last summer. (“AFIP” apparently stands for America, France, Italy, and Portugal, the countries from which some of the investment hails.) This two-floor venue includes a kitchen, lounge, and retail space, not to mention a window display of empty bottles of pricey wines that I assume were consumed on site.

Meanwhile, a few hundred meters south and on the other side of the street, Wine & Wine has at least party opened after a long period of construction. It is squeezed between Jasmine restaurant and Buffalo restaurant and, like those places, will likely draw some of the city’s better-placed residents.

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