(Note: This event is invite-only. We’ll have more info in the next few days on the wines and judges.)

The fourth annual Grape Wall Challenge is slated for restaurant F By Tribute in Beijing on December 12. Previous challenges were held at Modo (2011), Maison Boulud (2010) and Maxim’s (2009).

Grape Wall Challenge, or GWC, features Chinese consumers blind tasting wines that retail for under rmb100. It has two key goals: 1) find good cheap wine (a category often ignored) and 2) raise consumer confidence about wine (a topic many find overwhelming and mysterious).

The consumers are all casual wine drinkers. They blind taste 20 wines and rate each as “love it“, “like it“, “don’t like it” or “hate it“, then write a short “tasting note“.

Most major importers / distributors in China participate in GWC and we have space for a few more this year. We ask that any wines submitted be available beyond a single city or region so consumers in as much of the country as possible can buy and try them. (We plan a separate Grape Wall Challenge for more niche distributors.)

The general guidelines:

• Distributors may provide up to four wines, including a maximum of two red wine labels and two white wine labels.
• If two red wine labels are submitted, each must come from a different country. The same rule applies to white wines.
• The wines must retail for less than rmb100. We must be able to verify this. We do not accept wines on sale for less than rmb100 but regularly priced over rmb100.
• We need a list of the wines by close of business on December 7. We need delivery of the wines by the end of the day on December 10.
• There is no fee for entering wines in Grape Wall Challenge. This is a nonprofit initiative. Costs are covered by Grape Wall blog or by sponsors such as this year’s venue host, F By Tribute.

For more information or to enter wines, email beijingboyce (at) yahoo.com.

See also:

• The Grape Wall Challenge FAQ in English or Chinese.
• Posts from GWC 2011 at Modo here.
• Posts from GWC 2010 at Maison Boulud here.
• Posts from GWC 2009 at Maxim’s here.

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