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By Jim Boyce

The new People’s Series wines by Grace Vineyard were launched yesterday in Beijing during the annual “Taste of the Nations” event held on Saturday by Everwines, the retail brand of Torres. “Taste of the Nations” features ~150 wines, from 14 countries, handled by Torres. As usual, the lineup included wines from its two China-based partners, Grace and Silver Heights. The People’s Series wine, launched a few months ago in Shanghai, received its own table and display.

The 2011 Chardonnay is made from grapes grown at Grace’s home base in Shanxi while the 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced in Ningxia from vines that range in age from six to ten years, says Torres’ north China manager Damien Shee. Both retail for rmb99.

“People’s Series is a tribute to the People of China, with images of people on the label: workers, farmers, students, merchants,” stated a Torres press release in June. They are particularly aimed to young urban consumers. The labels, which resemble propaganda posters, drew mixed reactions yesterday. Several Chinese said that people in China generally would not appreciate them while most expatriates I talked to immediately identified them as a potential gift for friends and family back home.

The Grace portfolio includes three other levels of Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon: entry-level (rmb75), premium (rmb125) and Tasya’s Reserve (rmb199). You can see the wines and prices at Evervines.

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By Jim Boyce

Media company Wine China and cork supplier Columbin recently held a tasting of ~30 Chinese wines, most of them regional brands unknown to the general consumer in Beijing. Jim Sun of Wine China asked me to talk for a few minutes to the attendees, most of them wine makers with the brands participating. I made five brief points from my perspective as a consumer and thought I would share them here. (As I didn’t write them down, the following isn’t verbatim, but gives the basic points.)

1. The region of Ningxia is winning the China wine game at this point and is unique in having a cluster of over a dozen decent producers. Good natural conditions and strong government support are two key reasons. Another is the availability of large tracts of land that allow wineries to better control fruit quality as compared to buying from many small-scale farms.

2. The quality of Chinese wines is improving. I started drinking them eight years ago and finding a handful of good ones then was a challenge. Today I can easily create a “top 10” or “top 20” and point to a good number of decent producers. These good wines still represent a few cases of the total barrel of production in China but it shows what is possible with an increased focus on quality. This quality can be further raised, especially by better vineyard practices that give winemakers better grapes. But there are two key challenges when it comes to the consumer market.

3. One challenge is distribution. Better Chinese wines are often hard to find. Last year, I helped organize the Ningxia Wine Challenge in Yinchuan. We had 39 wines and the judges, led by Ma Huiqin and Jancis Robinson, deemed the vast majority as good. A few weeks later, I went to a supermarket in downtown Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, to grab a few of these wines to take to Beijing. I couldn’t find any of them. I have also had readers call me during trips to Yinchuan to ask where they can buy the wines I write about on this blog. It’s hard to explain that I don’t know where in Ningxia to get the best Ningxia wines.

Most of the best wines are also made in small quantities. If a winery only makes 10,000 bottles of a given label, that works out to one bottle per 130,000 people, not exactly something most drinkers can find and try.

4. The second problem is the prices. They are too high. I can walk into my local 7-ELEVEN and buy a decent bottle of Chilean wine for rmb75. All of the bottles at the Wine China-Columbin tasting cost more than this, with most between rmb250 and rmb900. They can’t compete in terms of value, at either the low end or high end, since wines from France, Spain, Australia and elsewhere offer more.

This especially matters now as government austerity measures are severely curtailing spending by officials, traditionally a key source of revenue. We do see increased spending by consumers, but while this group has traditionally bought wine for reasons of status (gifts and celebrations) or health, it is more and more buying them based on taste. Thus producers are looking at pressure to simultaneously raise quality and lower prices.

5. These are “good” problems. We are talking about the need for better distribution and pricing because these wineries are making something of value. We know China can make decent wines. What we don’t know is how many producers can provide greater value, either by improving quality or lowering price or both, and how many of them can get those bottles into the hands of consumers. These are intriguing questions as the wine market develops.

By Jim Boyce

It’s a bumper harvest this year for China wine rumors. This month’s is that Chilean heavyweight Concha y Toro bought a 50-percent stake in China-based wine importer and distributor Summergate. Concha y Toro has been a cornerstone of the Summergate portfolio, especially as major accounts Antinori and DBR Lafite left in 2012 and 2010 respectively, the latter said to part ways after being unable to invest in the distributor. While Summergate founding partner Brendan O’Toole has relocated to the UK, fellow partner Ian Ford said last week that O’Toole remains involved as a non-executive shareholder and that no equity has changed hands. There is also no word from Concha y Toro re any investment. I’ll update if there are any updates / news re this situation.

Rumors on the health of importers and distributors are thick these days. Thousands of new players, often led by inexperienced managers, rushed to import wine over the past five years and found it far easier to bring in bottles than to actually sell them, thus, there is lots of stock on hand and lots of likelihood of dumping. Add the new wave of online retailers, who are battling for market share as much as for profit at this point, and a government crackdown on official spending that has seriously dented sales of high-end bottles, and there is plenty of market pressure. On top of this, as global players see their stakes growing in the China market, they want more control of their brands, which includes investing in established distributors — Suntory’s share in ASC is a prime example. Anyway, given all this, don’t expect the rumors to let up any time soon.

By the way, look for an interview with Ian Ford on his fifteen years experience in the China market in the very near future.

Man? Beast? Neither! He’s a glass-holding machine!

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By Jim Boyce

“Is it man or beast!?” Men, women and children of all ages uttered those words last year at the Hilton Food & Wine Experience in Beijing as Philip ‘Awesometon’ Osenton picked up glasses, one by one, until he held 51 in one hand. Fifty-one! It was, indeed, an impressive sight. Because his hands aren’t even that big! (Seriously, he should get finger extensions. I’m sure he could hold 75 glasses.)

It was just part of what I’d say is the the top annual wine consumer event in Beijing. Now in its sixteenth year — that alone is a feat given how fast things change in this city — the Food & Wine Experience features over 1000 wines from over 20 countries, from distributors both big and small, plus food vendors, classes on coffee, chocolate, beer and more, and the chance to meet fellow consumers.

This year’s event is slated for November 2. The Hilton’s Simon Amos says over 80 booths are already reserved.

I posted before why I think distributors, especially those without a retail presence, should book space at this event. I don’t think I need to post why consumers should go, unless they have something against sampling a huge range of wines for a few hundred renminbi.

More on this year’s event soon…

Note: To reserve a spot in the tasting, contact Capital M at 6702-2727 or reservations@capital-m-beijing.com.

By Jim Boyce

I’m a writer, not a speaker; a wine consumer, not an expert. So I rarely lead public wine tastings. But I will do one this Friday at Capital M and I think we have an excellent lineup.

The focus is Chinese wines and we have picked from among the country’s best, including — from east to west — Great River Hill (Shandong), Grace Vineyard (Shanxi), Chateau Hansen (Inner Mongolia), Silver Heights (Ningxia), Helan Qing Xue (Ningxia), Domaine Helan Mountain (Ningxia) and 1421 (Xinjiang). And I’m hoping to add one more (TBC).

To buy these bottles would cost over rmb2000. The fee for this event is rmb138. That makes it an economical way to “try before you buy” and get an idea of what is available in the market. (Note: There won’t be any bottles for sale at the event.) Plus, Capital M is a very cool venue!

What I’ll do is give basic background on each wine — where it comes from, who made it, what the weather was like in a given year, and so on. I’ll also provide some stories behind the wineries. Which winery has only three employees? Which has a link to Atlantis? And which has a donkey as a mascot? All shall be revealed.

(If you like to ask questions about baume levels, yeast strains and varietal clones, this event probably isn’t for you. I have a basic knowledge of the wines and wineries but I’m not well-versed on the technical side.)

The heart and soul of the event is the chance to try, side by side, what rank among nine of China’s better wines and to see which ones they like.

I’m told Capital M has 30 to 35 seats for the tasting and about half are already booked. If you’d like to join, RSVP at this Capital M page, and please let me know as well. Also, please account for traffic if you plan to attend as we will start around 6:30 PM.

And if you have any questions, you can reach me at beijingboyce (at) yahoo.com.

A bubbly to honor a Communist icon. A blend of Cabernet and cabaret. And a bottle that brings DRC and Lafite together at last. Some of the weird and wonderful wine labels spotted in China over the past few years.

I included 15 labels in a special issue of my China wine newsletter GWoC Talk last night. From ‘Old Man‘, with its hint of spent youth, to a back label that doesn’t give — or rather does give — a “sweet fuck”.

I’m posting them here, too, and hope you enjoy them as much as I do. And look for more labels at this tumbler account and occasionally on this blog. Finally, if you are a regular reader, you might have seen a few of the labels below, but most of them are making their debut.

Moistens your lung

What does Foreign Girl taste like? Strawberries. I got this bottle, made by Chang Bai Shan in the northeast province of Jilin, at Carrefour a few years back. Along with grapes, it includes wolfberry, which is commonly used as medicine. The label description (reproduced with typos):

“The wine is clear and transparent with bright color and lustre, mellow and tastelasting with charming fruity taste. Thanks to the nut ritions such as amino acid,vitamin C,vitamin B1, vitaminB2, schisandra element, schisandra alcohol, volate oil and multiple microelements, the wine moistens the lung,enriches the.”

OK, it moistens the lung. But it enriches the… what? I would say the global stockpile of unintentional humor.

Ages well

Imagine the tasting notes for this bottle of Old Man. ‘Prune and faint tobacco aromas, with a whiff of spent youth. The body is a bit flabby but still shows complexity, providing a wrinkle of dried fruit and a finish that strongly disapproves of today’s youth.’ Perfect for retirement or sixtieth birthday parties. Spotted in Yantai in Shandong province.

A sweet, er, screw up

It might not exist on the “aroma wheel” but the translators didn’t shy away from using “sweet fuck” on the back label of this Alice White wine from Australia. Consider it the equivalent of when Robert Parker describes a wine as “rich“. Which is all the time. But don’t expect it to apply if you blend the Foreign Girl and Old Man wines.

Rock label

Silver Heights in Ningxia makes my favorite Chinese wines and some of the best labels. The subdued paper color, elegant typeface, and imagery based on thousand-year-old rock art from the nearby Helan Mountain range all work to evoke history via modern design. Plus, the wine comes in regular and big sizes. (I believe the latter are called ‘magnums’. I will drink one and find out.)

Wine of the times

China witnessed turbulent times as the grapes for this vintage grew in Shandong. Yangtze River floods killed millions, the Mukden Incident saw Japan push through Manchuria, and former China leader Mao Zedong established the Chinese Soviet Republic as the Kuomintang sought to stop him. This label is evidence of a wine-making history in China that is older than most think but, ultimately, it evokes something much more significant — a crucial year in China’s past.

Continue reading →

By Jim Boyce

Six years ago, I wrote a post called “The Search for Seven Good Chinese Wines“, based on a tasting in my apartment in Beijing. I’ve since found far more decent Chinese wines than that and wrote about a few this month in The Beijinger in a new column called “Made in China“.

I have occasionally written on wine for the local lifestyle magazines, including on China’s top wineries and wine on a budget for Agenda Beijing and a cover story for City Weekend (see part 1, part 2 and part 3).

But I shied away from anything regular until managing editor Steven Schwankert of The Beijinger called me. He suggested I write about wine, I told him I was only interested in writing about Chinese wine, and, to my surprise, he gave the green light. I don’t have anything against wine from elsewhere. It’s just that since I came to work in China, my main focus has been on local wines, and that is what I’m most comfortable writing on.

Below is the first “Made in China” column. It explains how to get a handful of wines with one shopping trip for a DIY tasting at home. You decide whether or not the wines are good…

(Note: For more on the China wine scene, sign up for the Grape Wall newsletter, on the right hand side of the blog.)