What are the major complaints I get from readers of this blog? One: they can’t find many of the Chinese wines that receive praise in contests and from critics. Two: those they do tend to find are dishearteningly expensive. This goes for wine buyers in hotels, restaurants and bars, too, who tell me of their difficulty sourcing good Chinese wines at good prices.

Look, we know China can produce good wine. We knew it a century ago when Changyu wines from Shandong won international accolades. We knew it 25 years ago when wines from fellow Shandong winery Huadong did the same. And we know it now more than ever via the growing number of good wines made throughout the country, an outcome that makes sense given China’s diversity and the current state of wine-making technology.

What we need now is not just good wine but good-value wine that is made in larger amounts and easier to find.

Given this, my focus over the past eighteen months has been on wines that fit what I call a “Triple-A” or “3A” formula — appetizing, affordable and available.

I focus on select labels from producers like Grace from Shanxi, Hansen from Inner Mongolia, Great River Hill from Shandong. and 1421 from Xinjiang. The goal is to use wines that are enjoyed by consumers (appetizing), have labels that sell for less than rmb150 or, ideally, less than rmb100 (affordable), and are available via retail chains or distributors with nationwide reach (accessible).

(I’m considering adding “authentic” and thus making the formula “Quadruple-A” or “4A” since a good deal of imported bulk wine has been used as a blend over the years.)

I used Triple-A wines in April’s China Wine Tour and December’s Grape Wall Challenge, and use them in tastings with fellow consumers and trade people. I also use more expensive wines, such as those from Helan Qing Xue and Silver Heights (both from Ningxia), but usually for hotel and restaurant buyers creating a China wine list that already has Triple-A options or for people yet to try Chinese wines and interested in what is available.

Does all this mean I wouldn’t appreciate yet another Cabernet blend that tastes good, costs over rmb1000, and has a small production run and no distributor? Of course not. Drinking any wine — especially any good wine — is fun.

But consumers here also deserves good wines that are inexpensive, that have larger production runs and decent distribution, and — given the increasing knowledge of buyers and the often negative attitudes they have about local goods — that are backed with savvy marketing. The kind to compete with good cheap wines from Spain and Australia and Argentina and Chile and elsewhere and that are increasingly popular here.

It won’t be easy. Few producers can make enough wine of any quality, let alone good quality, to cover a market with a billion-plus people armed with growing disposable income. And while there are dozens of producers making good wine, in many cases that means only a few thousand bottles per label. (I regularly describe them as representing a case or two out of the barrel of total production). Getting wine to consumers is also a major challenge for many smaller players, although we do find success stories, and the rise of online sales is fortuitous.

The situation might sound a bit dire but this is a good time for China to make a quality leap. The government’s austerity program has severely slashed luxury goods spending by officials over the past two years, including on expensive wines, and it appears here to stay. That means producers need to appeal to regular consumers, who are learning more about wine and increasingly looking for quality and value.

Given the current lull in overall demand as the market recovers from slashed spending by officials, and a large number of vineyards now coming online due to past investments, we should see grape surpluses over the next few years. That will hopefully mean both price and source stability for producers. And that lowered risk, combined with the growing skill of the country’s wine makers and the need to appeal to general consumers, makes the time ripe for creating more triple-A wines.

Note: I’m a fan of the country’s boutique wineries but production of, say, 5,000 bottles translates to one bottle per ~200,000 consumers. If consumers really are increasingly buying wine based on taste rather simply for gift-giving or expressing status, China needs larger quantities of good wine, whether that come from the big brands boosting quality, current small operations expanding or new players entering the market.

By the way, here are some Chinese wines I tried at the Yanqing Wine Expo earlier this week. I’ll have more on them and the wine fair soon.

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By Jim Boyce

Every year we organize the Grape Wall Challenge and ask consumers to blind taste 40 wines that retail for under rmb100. Most of the country’s biggest importers / distributors participate: they supply up to four wines — two red and two white — with no more than two labels from any one country. Given most of these companies have nationwide reach, we get, for our sample size, a nice cross-section of what is available in China.

What does this have to do with a blog post about Argentine wine in Beijing? Lots. Wines from that country have done very well during five years of Grape Wall Challenges. Consumers not only like the fresh aromatic Torrontes entries and fruity round Malbec ones but also wines made with everything from Viognier to Cabernet Sauvignon.

Despite the appealing taste of these wines and despite Argentina being among the world’s top-six wine producers, the country has a small presence in China. With a 2 percent share of wine imports last year, it was far behind smaller producers like Australia (13 percent) and Chile (9 percent).

That is one reason I went on a wine tour of Argentina in June (post coming). And why I wanted to create an event called the ArgenChina Wine Tour, held in Beijing last Saturday. We need more such wines in consumers’ hands.

This is the second tour I have helped organize in the Sanlitun area of Beijing. The first — The China Wine Tour in April — involved 40 consumers visiting four venues and trying eight local wines made with grapes from six regions.

The ArgenChina Wine Tour sought to improve on that first event. First, rather than have one big group of tasters, we created three smaller ones of ten people each, with one group starting the tour each hour. Ten seems like a good number of people to split a bottle of wine — each person gets a half-glass — and doesn’t overwhelm a given venue.

Second, we had many no-shows for the China Wine Tour, about 35 percent, which is all too common in Beijing. For the ArgenChina tour, I sent many reminders and emphasized the event’s value: we charged rmb150 for 11 wines, some snacks and a Schott Zweisel glass that itself retails for ~rmb100. We had a 100-percent attendance rate this time around.

On to the tour!

The idea was to feature wines from throughout Argentina. We ultimately had 11 wines from Salta (Colome), La Rioja (San Huberto), San Juan (Calia, Osaada), Mendoza (Terrazas, O’Fournier, Salentein) and Patagonia (Chacra), thus covering north, central and south regions. Grape varieties included Torrontes, Chardonnay, Malbec, Tempranillo, Pinot Noir, and Syrah. We also had a few snacks, including alfajores, and tango performances / lessons at the finish.

Here is the tour, stop by stop.

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Stop 1: The Wine Gallery

Owned by importers / distributor ASC, The Wine Gallery is a three-story venue with retail, education and event spaces. We started upstairs in one of the event rooms and handed each member a tour map and a glass to carry during the day and later take home. Andrew Maidment of Wines of Argentina then gave an introduction to the country’s key regions and answered questions.

We also tried our first two wines, both from Colome, an operation in the Salta region that includes a vineyard at over 3000 meters and some vines over 150 years old. The floral Torrontes struck some people as unusual at first but quickly caught on due to its freshness, fruitiness and superb acidity. The rich and fruity Malbec Reserve also got general approval. Both of these wines ranked among my favorites of the day.

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Stop 2: Sureno

This is the flagship restaurant in Opposite House, a boutique hotel just a short walk from The Wine Gallery. We sat at the bar while Matthew Bell introduced us to two wines from Terrazas in Mendoza.

Sureno paired the Reserve Chardonnay with a ricotta cheese and smoked salmon bruschetta topped with truffle oil, while the Reserve Malbec had several bruschetta options, including spicy salami and parma ham topped with tomato oil. All of them worked well. I liked the smooth and slightly creamy Chardonnay as a counterpoint to the Torrontes one stop earlier. Numerous people in the group I visited with enjoyed the Malbec.

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Stop 3: Mosto

This restaurant is considered among the best in Beijing and includes a South American twist — two of the owners hail from Colombia and Venezuela respectively. I think including restaurants like Mosto and Sureno is important because they ultimately carry wines they believe they can sell, that is, wines their customers will enjoy.

We started with a San Juan chardonnay under the label Osaada. This is a standard expression of the grape and I have tried it at Mosto’s sibling cafe Moka (same building, first floor) for rmb30 during happy hour (4 PM to 7 PM daily). We then had a Malbec-Tempranillo from O. Fournier in Mendoza, an intriguing operation that also sells some vineyard space to investors, including a few from China, and then makes wines on their behalf. I liked the red blend with its fresh berry and slightly smoky and grassy aromas. It’s well-made — and good value at rmb198 per bottle.

I also opened a bottle of dulce de leche — milk and sugar cooked until it takes on a caramel character — that I brought back from Argentina. Each member tried a small spoonful, then we ate two alfajores, a kind of cookie that includes dulce de leche and that I sometimes pick up at Moka (three for rmb15).

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Stop 4: The Loop

This is my “local“: I like The Loop’s modest but intriguing portfolio and have attended many tastings here, including a few where I brought Chinese wines.

We tried two wines sourced by Wines of Argentina. The first, Chacra “Barda” Pinot Noir from Patagonia, tended to be a crowd-pleaser, save for a few attendees who are not fans of this particular grape. Lots of pleasant cherry and toasty aromas along with complex flavors that increased as the wine breathed. This wine was presented by Marion Pansiot.

The second wine, San Huberto Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve from La Rioja, was bigger and bolder. Violet, dark fruit and oak aromas, with a somewhat jammy body, amplified by following that lighter Pinot Noir. This wine was presented by Pansiot and Sherry Pei.

My plan to pair these wines with empanadas fell through at the last-minute so we had tasty sausage rolls and bacon and cheese rolls from nearby Two Guys and a Pie. Those hit the spot after three hours of tasting and traveling.

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Stop 5: Everwines

Owned by importers / distributor Torres China, this shop was our final stop. We tried three wines and enjoyed tango. Everwines waived the usual rmb80 corkage fee, which meant we could buy bottles at retail prices — from rmb87 — and enjoy them on the front patio, back patio or inside.

I also learned the key lesson of this tour: eleven wines is a lot.

Most of us were tipsy on arrival and this meant predictable incidents, like people free-pouring and thus taking too much wine or members of earlier groups using the bottles of later groups and resulting in people being unhappy they didn’t get a particular label and thus only tried ten wines — which is what we promoted — instead of eleven blah blah blah. Sorry Everwines! You guys were the first stop on the China Wine Tour and the last stop on the ArgenChina Wine Tour and both times dealt with some issues!

Anyway, the lineup here included two bottles from San Juan: Calia Chardonnay-Torrontes, a light and simple wine that would be fantastic for a picnic, and Calia Shiraz-Malbec, also easy-drinking and well-priced at less than rmb100. We also had Salentin Malbec Reserve from Mendoza, which seemed to be the source of trouble but received good reviews from those who tried it.

Overall, the event covered a good range of Argentine wines and drew an interesting mix of people from numerous countries, professions and age groups. One person suggested providing more info on ordering the wines and I’ll aim to do so in the future. Future events might also see smaller pours — say 50 ml instead of 75 ml — and thus allow us to keep the same number of wines, speed up the tour and get people to that final destination with clearer heads.

I think more such tastings would be good, perhaps on a bigger scale and reaching out to more Chinese consumers, and have a vision of ArgenChina Wine Tours happening simultaneously in numerous cities. Or maybe that’s just the wine talking!

Anyway, the next event will likely be a new and improved version of the China Wine Tour. If you’re interested in joining, let me know at beijingboyce (at) yahoo.com and I’ll send details when everything is ready to go.

Thanks to the venues and distributors who supported ArgenChina, including Alex Cros at China Wine & Spirits (Schott Zweisel), Jeanne Wang and Vicky Mo at The Wine Gallery, Themis Kouris and Matthew Bell at Sureno, Anna Lin Yip and Steven Yang at Mosto, Weiley Lu, William Riquet and Amy at The Loop and Damien Shee and Sarah Xiang at Everwines. Thanks to Andrew Maidment and Wines of Argentina for sourcing tango dancers and wines and jumping in to deal with last-minute logistical crises, to Marion Pansiot and Sherry Pei for presenting wines, to Marian Larrain Hurtado of La Cava for design / printing assitance, and to Matt Wong and Andrew Papas at Two Guys and a Pie for handling snacks on short notice. Finally, thanks to everyone who attended and made this a fun day.

Australian wine producer Penfolds today held its first re-corking clinic in Beijing, with several sessions organized by importer / distributor ASC at China World Summit Wing. As Penfolds’ website puts it:

The Penfolds Re-corking Clinics offer the owners of Penfolds red wines which are 15 years and older the opportunity to have their wines assessed by a winemaker, and if necessary, opened, tasted, topped up and re-capsuled on the spot.

Chief winemaker Peter Gago said 120,000 bottles have been re-corked over the past 23 years. Today’s clinic included bottles of icon label Grange from 1955 and 1971.

Gago demonstrated re-corking to a group of about 40 of us by using a 1993 ‘Bin 389’ Cabernet-Shiraz.

The process includes using a color-coded gauge to assess the level of wine in the bottle (see photo below). Once the decision is made to open the bottle, the cork is pulled and gas immediately inserted into the neck to preserve the wine. A sample of about 15 ml is removed and tasted, with wine from the newest vintage then added as a replacement. Gago said the amount involved — about 2 percent of total volume — does not affect the wine’s integrity but that re-corking is only allowed once. The bottle then gets a new cork and capsule, and is wrapped in white tissue paper, which he said is useful as it easily shows leaks.

A few other comments by Gago:

• While people might automatically reach for the most common openers, such as ‘the waiter’s friend‘, Gago said older corks tend to be more fragile and require tools that are gentler.
• Gago also said recommendations on “drink by” dates tend to be based on ideal storage conditions. “A big issue with wine is movement. In England, a bottle of Cheval Blanc might have changed hands 18 times but never left [the cellar],” he explained. In contrast, another bottle might have been shipped around the world numerous times and thus have less aging potential.
• And he said the clinics are also useful for those who want to make sure they have the real Penfolds deal. “They are not just re-corking clinics, they are also authenticity clinics,” said Gago.

Finally, Gago cited an “ulterior motive” for the clinics, namely, “to take bad wines out of the system.” He says that when an assessment “finds something isn’t as it should be”, the bottle gets a white dot, which is essentially a recommendation to drink or discard the wine. For some owners, this almost seems like a blessing:  “Sometimes people like it because they’re getting permission to drink the wine right away.”

So, what happens if you take a dozen-plus Chinese wines to the London International Wine Fair? That’s one experiment now complete thanks to Kevin Gayle of Middle Kingdom Wines, who presented bottles from four regions of China at his booth this year.

Before we get to the response of visitors — Gayle says they included “wine course students, sommeliers, wine merchants, journalists, wine consultants, wine school lecturers and [members of] wine societies” — here was the portfolio on offer:

1421 (Xinjiang)

• ‘Gold’ Chardonnay 2010
• ‘Gold’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

Great River Hill (Shandong)

• Chateau Nine Peaks’ Chardonnay Reserva 2013
• ‘Chateau Nine Peaks’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2011
• ‘Chateau Nine Peaks’ Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva 2011

Helan Qing Xue (Ningxia)

• ‘Jia Bei Lan’ Cabernet Blend Grand Reserve 2009
• ‘Jia Bei Lan’ Cabernet Blend Reserve 2011
• ‘Jia Bei Lan’ Cabernet Blend Estate 2011

Jin Sha (Inner Mongolia)

• ‘Kinschab Five Stars’ Dry Red 2008

Reifeng-Auzias (Shandong)

• Chardonnay Reserve 2011
• Syrah Reserve 2010
• Cabernet Franc Reserve 2010

Xi Xia King (Ningxia)

• ‘Global Jade Spring’ Chardonnay 2009
• ‘Diplomatic Envoy’ Cabernet Sauvignon 2010

Gayle says that in addition to positive comments about the wine labels — “Everyone thought they were simply fantastic” — he said many people were impressed by the wines themselves.

When it came to the whites, all of them were Chardonnay.

“In terms of popularity, Chateau Nine Peaks and 1421 seemed to be the overall favourites, with Reifeng Auzias and Xi Xia King close behind in third place,” he says. “But all of these wines were picked as ‘the best’ by various visitors over the three-day event.”

He says many visitors found that the wines, particularly from Chateau Nine Peaks and Reifeng-Auzias, “didn’t taste exactly like a Chardonnay” and “quite a few people specified they wouldn’t have guessed the grape accurately in a blind tasting.”

Even so, he found visitors generally preferred the whites to the reds.

“One consultant commented that if he was to recommend one it would be a white simply because white wine drinkers have ‘less sophisticated palates’ and whites in general are less complicated,” he says.

In terms of the reds, he said 1421 Cabernet Sauvignon was “one of the clear favourites”, with the Chateau Nine Peaks Cabernet Sauvignon either tied or close behind and edging out its sibling, the Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve.

“I think in general, with the 1421, people ‘recognized’, and were comfortable with, the taste being ‘exactly what it says on the tin’,” says Gayle. In terms of the pricier reds, he says the Xi Xia King was “very well-liked“.

“One consultant who had enthused about it on day one, returned on the last day to show this wine to a buyer from the Hilton Hotel,” he says.

“With the exception of Jia Bei Lan, all of the other reds were equally well liked, with perhaps the Reifeng-Auzias Syrah and Cabernet Franc pleasantly surprising people as the only non-Cabernet Sauvignons,” he says. “People found the Jia Bei Lan wines interesting. Not as many as I had expected had heard of the 2009 [which won an ‘international trophy’ from Decanter], but in general they recognized these immediately as high-quality wines. Most, like me, found the Jia Bei Lan Reserve 2011 more to their taste than the 2009.”

Not surprisingly, many visitors noted the prices of the Chinese wines. [Reifeng-Auzias, for example, tends to retail for more than rmb1500 / 190 Euro.]

“When all’s said and done, many were surprised at the high prices of some of the wines and naturally compared them to the world-wide competition,” he said. “There were many comments along the lines of ‘Well, who is going to buy that for that when you can get this for this?'”

The ultimate result?

“1421 and Chateau Nine Peaks reds and whites were seen as reasonable entry-level wines, while Xi Xia King ‘Diplomatic Envoy” and Helan Qing Xue ‘Jia Bei Lan’ Estate 2011 were higher-end wines where the price was not too exorbitant,” he says.

“The other wines were more than acceptable but their prices needed to take into account the huge supply of wine. In general, it was a worthwhile experience. Lots of people looking for something ‘different’ found it on my table – and were pleasantly surprised at the quality. Whether this turns into sales is another story.”