Lucky eight! World Marselan Day turned eight years old with a series of festivals — vibrant full-bodied affairs with fresh delicious wines and notes of music, gorgeous spring weather and fellowship.
I launched World Marselan Day in 2018 to encourage more people to enjoy wine–particularly local wine. Given the emphasis we see on scores, awards and classroom-style events, and given sales are tough, my focus is on consumers and on fun events that I would personally pay money to attend.
For the 2015 mission, I helped co-organize five events in three cities, each with 35 to 50 Marselans from across China as well as examples from overseas.
Many thanks to the event hosts The Merchants, Weeknd, Wine to Asia and Otherroof, and to all who supplied wines, attended the events, shared our posts, provided advice and more. I will soon publish a major post-campaign write-up in the Grape Wall newsletter. Sign up for free here.
Finally, World Marselan Day has no advertiser or sponsors, nor I do not charge wineries to participate. The venues handle all revenue, with most if not all going to expenses like hiring DJs and extra staff. If you would like to help cover the costs borne by Grape Wall of China (me) for this and other events, please click here.
On to the photos and videos!
The Merchants
Beijing | April 27
The annual Marselan Festival at The Merchants in Beijing is the longest-running World Marselan Day event. This year, we were blessed with glorious spring weather. And despite this Sunday being a working day, due to China’s holiday schedule, we had a good turnout of people to enjoy 50 Marselans and music on the patio beside The Merchants.
It was a one-two Beijing-Shanghai punch as The Merchants’ sibling restaurant in Shanghai held a Marselan festival for a third consecutive year. Attendees enjoined a relaxed streetside tasting with 50 Marselans from across China, plus a few from around the world, while a DJ played tunes.
Weeknd wine bar and restaurant in Shenzhen teamed up with Wine to Asia to round out our trio of festivals on April 27, World Marselan Day proper. This was the first such event at Weeknd although this place has been involved in prior World Marselan Day events, including a 2024 tasting of wine and beer made with Marselan from Grace Vineyard in Shanxi.
While most World Marselan Day events are for consumers, we joined the Wine to Asia (Veronafiere) trade fair in Shenzhen for a third year. After last year’s session with Deng Zhongxiang, featuring Marselan he made at five different Ningxia wineries, this year we provided an extensive lineup of 47 50 Marselan from across China plus brands from France, Serbia and Uruguay. While many people had no or little of knowledge of Marselan two years ago, numerous attendees this year knew many brands and had visited some wineries.
Our final World Marslean Day event saw 35 bottles delivered from the tasting on May 10 to Otheroof for the Wine to Asia wrap-up party on May 11. This was a good chance for both trade fair attendees and regular consumers to enjoy a wide range of Marselans at a casual pace while enjoying plenty of snacks both inside Otheroof and on the deck out back.
These photos and videos are from the main World Marselan Day events in which I was involved. I also helped out with a few other Marselan events, including a tasting in Ningbo and a wine appreciation course at China Agricultural University in Beijing.
Other wine aficionados also held Marselan tastings, wrote social media posts or simply raised a glass this grape. I encourage people who do so to use the tag #worldmarselanday for their posts so it is easier for everyone to find them!
As noted, I will soon publish a wrap-up post that looks back at “the good, the bad and the ugly” of the past eight years of the World Marselan Day project and what it reveals about both wine in China and wine in general.
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