Beijing restaurant Blackswan took top spot at this year’s China’s Wine List of the Year Awards. Along with the best wine menu in continental China, Blackswan won numerous other titles, including for best sommelier, Tyler Chen.

The awards were announced as part of the Asia Top Sommelier gala dinner in Macau on Friday night.

(Note: I surveyed the six finalist lists over a month ago and wrote about key themes, including a general obsession with French wine, the growth of by-the-glass selections, the rise of local labels and lots more. See Extensive & Expensive: A Dive into China’s Top Wine Lists.)

Blackswan Bottles

Blackswan has an impressive range of wines and, for those who follow grades, many include scores from key critics–I counted at least ten. The restaurant also lists a dozen Chinese wineries. More on that below.

Light drinkers, or those seeking to explore, can check out the menu of about 70 wines by the glass. While tilted heavily toward France, it includes options from Italy, Austria, New Zealand, China and elsewhere plus dessert wine and grappa.

Half of the wines use the Coravin preservation system, thus allowing Blackswan to present elite labels by the glass, including notable China wines Muxin 2022 (RMB198 for 75 ml, RMB258 for 100 ml) and Ao Yun 2018 (RMB488 for 75 ml, RMB688 for 100 ml).

Those seeking to explore can also choose from seven flights, with one featuring nine glasses, including a DRC, for RMB18888.

Like most top menus, a large portion of the wine list—with nearly 2000 options—is taken by Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux. (New World Whites get half a page for some half-dozen countries.)

And there are rare and expensive options: those seeking to drop half a million renminbi (USD70,000) on a magnum of Romanee-Conti Grand 2007, this is the place to go.

Local Flavors

But local producers also feature, with Blackswan listing a dozen by sub-region from across the country, including Ao Yun, Grace Vineyard, Helan Fanghua, Kanaan, Lansai, Legacy Peak, Longdai, Longyu, Mingyi, Muxin, Puchang and Tiansai.

At least some of these wines are relatively expensive, including versus other top restaurants, with Kanaan Riesling at RMB800 and Puchang Rkatsiteli at RMB980.

Get more info about Blackswan here.

And plenty more awards were given out this year, including best list with under 100 wines (Qulangyuan in Beijing) and best Chinese list (Roosevelt House in Shanghai). See all the results, plus an index of over 250 bars and restaurants with one-, two- or three-glass rankings, at the official account.

Note: I’m on the panel which surveys the top six wine lists each year.

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