I have gone to few very wine tastings this year but happily accepted an invitation to try seven vintages of Mas La Plana — from the inaugural 1970 to the most recent release 2010 — made by Spanish winery Torres and handled by its branch company of the same name here in China.
The wines were presented by Miguel Torres, who said the grapes for Mas La Plana come from a 29-hectare vineyard close to the winery and to the farmhouse where his parents live.
“My father wanted to make a wine that would represent the potential of Spanish wines,” he said.
“In the 1960’s, people around the world didn’t know Tempranillo, Granacha or other Spanish grapes,” Torres explained. “My father said if we can do this, we can show the world Spain is a great place for making wine.”
He also talked about the historical role of Jean Leon, a fellow Spanish national who went to Hollywood to be an actor.
“He was only in one film because he was so bad, so he opened a restaurant,” said Torres. “He was friends with people like Marilyn Monroe and had this idea to bring over Spanish wines.”
“He came back and wanted Cabernet Sauvignon, so at night he went to France to get cuttings from Lafite and Laguarde and brought them back,” he explained. “The Spanish authorities said they would not recognize Cabernet Sauvignon and Leon said he didn’t care. His wine became famous because of people like Ronald Reagan who came to his restaurant.”
The hope for that first vintage of Mas La Plana, in 1970, was to emulate what the Italians were doing with the Super Tuscans.
“My grandfather didn’t like it, as it wasn’t typical Garnacha,” said Torres. “But my father liked it, so my grandmother stepped in and said to put the wine in a tasting in Paris.”
“My father put that Spanish Cabernet Sauvignon into Burgundy bottles and it did really well,” he said. “Then my grandfather tried it again and said, ‘Maybe it’s not so bad, maybe we can sell this.'”
We then tried Mas La Plana from 1970, 1971, 1987, 1988, 1993, 2000 and 2010.
Both wines from the 1970’s were holding up well. Torres said the 1970 was good for “five more years without any problem, then we will see from there”. He added that he was “confident in these wines because of the acidity.”
I found earthy elements in both wines, with some truffle and black olive aromas. IÂ especially liked the 1971, which also had red fruit and chocolate aromas. Torres said “this is a wine to enjoy today”.
He told us he was rarely able to try these wines.
“I had a chance to try the 1970 a few years ago. A restaurant owner had three bottles in his personal collection and put a couple on the menu. It tasted just like this, in very good condition. It was very emotional to try a wine made by my father 40 years ago.”
Back to the wines: the 1988 was ripe with lots of red fruit, and some tepanade, licorice and menthol aromas. As for the most recent vintage on 2010, it had much jammier fruit, including plums, plus touches of red licorice, dry grass and herbs.
A “vertical tasting”, which includes different vintages of the same wine, are fun because it allows you to contrast and compare wines made over a period of time. In this particular case, it is even more special because some of the bottles are so rare and because we had plenty of historical context, including personal anecdotes, to bring the story of these wines to life.
After nearly two decades in China’s wine business, ASC co-founder Don St. Pierre, Jr has resigned, the company announced in a press release today:
“When my father and I started ASC Fine Wines in 1996 our vision was to bring the best quality wines from around the world to wine drinkers throughout China. The success we achieved is a testament to and a result of the passion, dedication and team work from the many wonderful people who worked at ASC over the past 19 years.†Mr. St. Pierre commented.
He continued, “ASC’s success would also have not been possible without the strong support of both its customers throughout Greater China, its suppliers/wineries from around the world and more recently its parent company, Suntory Wine International.â€
“Moving forward, under the leadership of Bruno Baudry, CEO of ASC, and with the strong support of Yuji Yamazaki, Chairman of the Board of ASC and President & CEO of SWI, I believe ASC has enormous opportunities for growth and can continue to be the leading wine importer throughout Greater China.â€, Mr. St. Pierre said.
St. Pierre witnessed plenty of ups and downs during his 19 years in the wine business. The early days were often desperate ones as sales expectations were lower than expected and cash reserves dwindled. A fortuitous meeting between his father Don Sr and Austrian businessman Gernot Langes-Swarovski — they met when the former asked the latter for a cigarette after a business meeting in Beijing – turned into an investment that allowed the company to survive and then thrive.
Within a decade of its founding, ASC was the key importer in a rapidly rising China market, a market that continues to entice the world and and now has thousands of importers and distributors, a growing online scene, and a consumer base increasingly focused on wine for its taste rather than just as a status symbol.
St Pierre has also found himself front and center of many of the ups and downs. On one hand, he has received a wide range of local and international accolades. On the other, he was in the middle of a China Customs investigation in 2008 that saw ASC fined and him spend four weeks in detention.
But true to the nature of the turbulent China wine scene, within months of his release, and amid much speculation about ASC’s future, St Pierre Jr and his father hosted Robert Parker on his first visit to mainland China and underscored the company’s resiliency.
ASC is firmly entwined in the history of imported wine in China and hopefully there is a book somewhere along the way that gives us the inside story.
(Click here for the first Grape Wall interview, in 2007, with Don St. Pierre, Jr.)
Our most recent GWoC Talk features Mike Signorelli of Signature Wine Club, who discusses some of the trials and tribulations of a very new field in the China wine scene.
From backboards to bottles, you’ve shifted from a career at NBA China to creating a wine club. How did that come about?
When I left the NBA during the player lockout, I was offered a couple of consulting projects with two successful entrepreneurs who were looking to grow their respective businesses in China. I was keen on starting my own business, but working with these gentlemen really gave me the “entrepreneurial bugâ€. I spent a few months looking at business models I thought could work in China, and products and services in demand, and decided to launch an O2O [online-to-offline] subscription wine club.
How does the club work?
If you are from the West you would compare us to a “wine of the month clubâ€. Each month our experts select six different wines that we then send directly to our subscribers.
Sigwine has two subscription levels — “silver†and “goldâ€. People can sign up for a flat monthly fee, or purchase a three-, six- or twelve-month subscriptions. Subscribers can also choose between receiving two or three bottles per month.
In addition to the wine, we offer detailed education and tasting notes about each bottle chosen. Subscribers may reorder the wines that they like at prices below suggested retail. We also have the occasional “flash sale†for interesting wines we find in the market.
Most people sign up via sigwine.com and pay a flat monthly fee via credit card, either foreign or Union Pay. More and more people are purchasing via WeChat and using the WeChat wallet. Since the world has gone mobile and people want to do everything on their phones, we will introduce the Sigwine APP for iOS and Android next month, which we are very excited about!
Who tends to join the club, and why, and is it different from what you first expected?
Our subscribers are roughly 65 percent foreigners or people in mixed marriages. Most people sign up for themselves. The trend for many new subscribers is to stick their toe in the water and try two bottles for six months. We have a 90 percent-plus renewal rate, and after their initial subscription expires members typically upgrade to three bottles a month.
When looking at our client base, after just over a year in business, we were hoping to have a higher percentage of local subscribers, but unless they have been introduced by a friend, they have been challenging to sign up. The reasons being our model is new, they don’t choose auto deduction on their credit cards, and there are trust issues within the local market — even with a money-back guarantee, people have a hard time paying up front and believing that we will send great wine every month!
Recently we have had a number of subscribers purchase subscriptions for friends, as birthdays, wedding, Christmas and other gifts. In addition, we have a few corporate accounts. They send bottles to clients across China.
How do you guys pick the wines each month?
I thought the most fun part of the job would be the wine selection but actually it’s the hardest. Each month we receive 12 to 15 bottles from multiple wine importers and distributors and we are very lucky if we can find three bottles that meet the quality and taste standards within our “silver” level budget. We have a panel of experts that make recommendations and approve each bottle. Fongyee Walker, one of China’s top wine educators, leads our tasting panel in Beijing. Finding wine for our premium “gold†subscription is a lot easier, as our experts have tasted most premium wines.
If you could pick one month’s wine you liked the best, which one would it be and why?
That is a really tough question because I have truly enjoyed the wines selected by the panel as well as a couple of “special†flash sales, including one for 7 Deadly Zins. But the one wine that sticks out is Bull’s Blood from Hungary. It’s a delicious wine with a very interesting background
We were fortunate enough to receive a very special price from the wine makers so that we could share this wine with our subscribers. The wine is fantastic and retails for rmb700 per bottle. We were able to offer it to our subscribers for much less and they responded by reordering more than 600 bottles!
By Jim Boyce | It’s funny when industry observers say Chinese consumers prefer red wines to white wines, and claim, as evidence red is associated with luck and white is associated with death. Really? Because China’s national spirit, and best-selling booze, is baijiu, which translates to ‘white spirit‘. And if red wine is so lucky, why did it take the Chinese 4,980 years of their 5,000-year history to start buying it. And, well let’s just stop there.
Red wines do dominate the market. They rose to prominence due to their links with status (Grand Cru!) and health (French Paradox!). And producers, importers and distributors now maintain that situation despite evidence many consumers like white wines. If your stock is 90 percent red wine, of course your white wine sales will be low.
This issue matters because consumers increasingly buy wine based on taste.
I wrote about white wine’s prospects in the latest issue of Wine Business International, quoting people like David Henderson, Damien Shee, Ma Huiqin, Chris Beros, Helene Ponty, Wang Fang, Craig Grafton and Julien Boulard. Get the pdf of the article — posted with permission — at this link.
As far as wine regions go, Ningxia is pretty darn hot. The past five years have seen a steady stream of winemakers, viticulturalists, writers, investors, equipment sellers, conference organizers, tourism experts — well, you get the idea — pour into Yinchuan, the capital of this region in north-central China. And for good reason. The government is devoting loads of resources to the industry, the region’s wineries are picking up medals and good reviews at home and abroad, and everyone wants a piece of what could be the best place to make wine in the world’s most enticing consumer market. Anyway, here’s a regional analysis I wrote for Wine Business International (posted with permission). As is often the case when writing about China, it can be hard to get a clear picture due to at-times slippery stats, opaque motives, and cultural and language challenges, but I have tried to tersely explain why Ningxia has risen to prominence and some of the challenges it faces.
Nicolas Billot-Grima has made wine in China for over a quarter-century: he started at Huadong in Shandong province in the late 1980s, helped open Sino-French Demonstration Vineyard in Hebei Province in the 1990s, and now consults on several winery operations and promotes the Jurade de Saint-Emilion in China. I recently met him for brunch in Beijing and have included below a few excerpts from our talk.
On claims consumers only like red wines:
That’s total bullshit. Chinese consumers are open-minded. If you explain your product well, they’ll try it. White wine is good for beginners because its less tannic, it’s fruitier, and it’s easier to adapt to. White wines are also more versatile with Chinese food.
On his current projects:
I’m working on a small vineyard in Huairou, in northern Beijing, but we are still waiting for the licence. The owners planted their vineyards in 2009, six hectares of Chardonnay, Cabernet and Merlot, with a little bit of Marselan.
On hosting Chinese VIPs in France:
I have a six-hectare vineyard in France, with 2.5 hectares of caves in the mountains. We mature our wines in barrels and store our bottles there. The caves are 12 degrees [Celsius] and 75 percent humidity all year around. And we sometimes have migrating rabbits stay there. We also have our own natural spring.
We’ve brought many important visitors to the big chateaux — Lafite, Latour and so on — and they always prefer my place! The mayor of Qingdao said it’s because I have the best fengshui, due to the mountain and the spring.
And marathon runners, too:
We had 70 people from China visit this summer before they did the Medoc marathon. We had a big party in my cave. We had foie gras, plus my Cremant and red wines, and much more. It was fun.
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[I recently had dinner with Lenz Moser and asked him about the current situation at Moser-Changyu XV in Ningxia.]
Winemaker Lenz Moser, who is involved with top-three China producer Changyu in a project in the Ningxia region, says the clock is being “reset” on the venture’s European sales plans.
Three years ago, the sprawling Changyu Moser XV opened with much fanfare. It included palatial grounds, vineyards and a museum, cellar, tasting room and sales room. Hopes were high about penetrating the European market. (See here for my interview with Moser during the opening.)
While Changyu-Moser did make something of a splash by getting a wine listed by BBR in London, he says the goal now is to regroup.
To that end, Moser just spent six weeks in Ningxia for this year’s vintage, his longest visit to date, and made five wines: the top-end ‘chateau‘ Cabernet Sauvignon, the second-tier ‘Moser Family‘ Cabernet and three-entry level wines, including a Cabernet, a Cabernet rose and an Italian Riesling-Chardonnay blend. Changyu uses the chateau’s nine-year-old vineyards as well as contract grapes, the latter representing more than 90 percent of its fruit, says Moser.
Moser also says he’s been experimenting with the wines and did eight versions of whites, from batches using Champagne yeast to those with varying amounts of maceration. He says the wines will be estate bottled this year rather than packaged at one of Changyu’s other facilities.
In terms of Europe, Moser says he is looking at 10 markets, with the UK and Germany at the top of the list. The wines will be priced at 50 euros for chateau level, 25 euros for Moser Family level and 10 euros for entry-level, he says. And the focus will be on the current vintage or on wines still in barrel. As for this year’s rose, Changyu’s first, he says all 250,000 bottles produced are destined for the European market.
Those prices are quite high for Europe, given wine typically sells for less than 5 euros, so it will be interesting to see what kind of marketing strategy is to come for Changyu-Moser.
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After months of fine-tuning the design and hosting events, including art show gatherings, a young diplomats mixer, a wedding reception and a World Baijiu Day tasting, Pop-Up will officially open its in-house bar on November 8 with a fundraiser that features New Zealand wine, baijiu and sheep.
“We want people to have a retreat from the madness of Sanlitun,” says Glenn Schuitman, who is partners in Pop-Up with Vito Zhang.
Sunday’s party starts at 4 PM and supports Maovember*, a mustache-favoring charity that will hold events all month to fund cataract surgeries, via “flying eye hospital” charity Orbis, for men in rural China.
Iconic New Zealand winery Yealands will donate a dozen bottles of Peter Yealands Syrah and Baby Doll Sauvignon Blanc, to be sold at rmb30 per glass during Sunday’s event, with all funds to Maovember. Yealands will also provide plush baby doll sheep toys to be used for a photo contest. (Baby Doll sheep were introduced to the vineyards seven years ago to control grass and weeds in an environmentally friendly way. See this video.)
Along with the wine, there will be pours of New Zealand baijiu Taizi, a tasty and spicy tipple made in Schuitman’s hometown of Christchurch, all funds to charity. And there will possibly be musical entertainment, although it is unclear if that might include performances by Schuitman, a former opera singer.
The menu at Pop-Up will start with 16 wines, including seven reds, five whites and a pair each of rose and sparkling wine, says Schuitman, a former opera singer. Those range from French rose to Spanish bubbly to Argentine Malbec and Torrontes. The lineup also includes two wines — Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc — from Crater Rim in New Zealand’s Waipara Valley, organic Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon from Australia’s McLaren Vale, under the Hedonist label, and those aforementioned Peter Yealands and Baby Doll options, all between rmb180 and rmb300 per bottle.
“I personally tasted and approved all of the wines, drinking them to the last drop,” says Schuitman, who used to sing at the opera. He added that Pop-Up works with a range of small- and medium-sized suppliers, including Roque and Australian Natural.
As for Maovember, when asked if he had a mustache-related story, he declined comment except to say “mine has never caught on fire.”
The bar is in the modestly sized high-ceilinged lower level of Pop-Up and is decorated with a slew of items, from ceramics to old radios to house plants to a dozen chandeliers. There is seating at the bar and a trio of tables for about 20 people.
Pop-Up is open from noon to 10 PM, with daily happy hours from 5 PM to 7 PM when wine-by-the glass is rmb35. There are also by-the-bottle options from rmb180 for guzzling on site or takeaway. You can find Pop-Up in Sanlitun South, on the ground floor of the building that sits between Jing-A and The Local.
* I am helping to organize Maovember. See the official site for more details on this project.
I joined California Wine Institute and nine Chinese journalists on a whirlwind tour of Napa, Sonoma, Lodi and Livermore last week. Here’s a look at our short stop in Lodi.
Our collective energy is low as we pull up to Wine and Roses Country Inn in Lodi, a large but relatively little-known region in the shadow of Napa and Sonoma country. The California Wine Institute team has been riding us hard for five days, from the moment we landed in San Francisco and headed straight for the pier until the previous day when we spent over 12 hours stomping the vineyard trail in Napa. Scheduled breaks have been steadily pruned to just enough time to change socks and add 10 percent to phone battery lives, with the benefit that we crossed an impressive number of wines and wineries off our bucket list.
This day’s wake-up call was the earliest yet and, after three stops, we began the two-hour late-afternoon bus drive to Lodi, a ride that saw exhaustion overwhelm and transform us into a snoozing drooling lot. (Okay, maybe only snoozing.) Making Lodi and its wines seem an even harder sell: our previous stops included legendary Stag’s Leap (of 1976 Judgment of Paris fame) and stylish Raymond (a memorable blend of wine and eye candy). Hard acts to follow.
We drop off our bags and gather in Lodi Wine & Visitor Center, on hotel grounds, for a talk by Camron King, executive director of Lodi Winegrape Commission. I met a half-dozen Lodi citizens on this trip and have rarely seen people so excited about being casual.
It’s an agricultural region, we’re very relaxed. (Not like those serious Napa guys.) As I said, we’re laid-back in Lodi. (But that doesn’t mean we don’t make quality wine, just like Napa.) In fact, if we were any more relaxed and laid-back, we’d be too relaxed and laid-back to tell you about it. (Or our incredibly diverse wines that deserve just as much attention as other nearby regions that I won’t name.) So, catch the Lodi spirit and relax. I mean it. Relax. RELAX NOW!
Okay, he didn’t express it exactly like that but suffice it to say King is far from relaxed. He’s opinionated, competitive and passionate—in a good way—as he should be given his position. He says that Lodi, with 110,000 acres of vineyards, 750 growers and 85-plus wineries, grows about a quarter of California’s grapes—more than Washington and Oregon combined. Has over 100 grape varieties, including 72 in commercial use, from Petite Syrah and Pinotage to Sangiovese and Symphony. Has not only that same helpful Pacific breeze as Napa and Sonoma but also two seaports—to stress the point, he says a sea lion was once found flopping through a vineyard.
He also briefs us on the region’s wine history, from the example of a 130-year-old Cinsault vineyard—to pair with those seemingly obligatory, in California, century-old Zinfandel plots—to a past largely focused on grape-growing, rather than wine-making, that allowed Lodi to weather Prohibition far better than others. Lodi kept millions of Americans tipsy during those “13 dark years” by shipping grapes, via refrigerated rail cars, to home wine-makers. Now, going on 15 years, the region is trying to raise its profile as a quality wine-maker.
It’s interesting stuff but, as King notes, we look exhausted—let’s translate that into Lodi-speak as ultra-relaxed—and we pile back on the bus and head for a wine dinner.
Enter the sunset. As we drive to LangeTwins winery, the sun steadily dips toward flat Lodi fields full of fruitless vines, long picked due to one of the earliest harvests on record. It looks like a glowing orange candy through the tinted windows. At least once per minute, this or that journalist mentions that the sunset is beautiful, that it would be nice to get photos, that it might soon be too late, that—well, it’s a subtle but regular message to STOP THE BUS NOW! King finally orders it to halt. We hustle off and futilely seek a perfect spot to get photos, stymied by those very vines that inspired our visit. Never mind. The collective energy has risen a few notches.
A few minutes later, we get to LangeTwins, in Jahant, the most central of Lodi’s seven sub-regions. It’s a huge neat winery owned by a family whose roots date to the 1870s. We head down a walkway, complete with water fountains and grassy fringes, and into a tasting area. Beyond that is an open cellar with tables set for dinner in a clearing between rows of barrels.
Enter the cheese. We’ve had no shortage of tasty food on this trip, often made by in-house winery chefs, but I’ve been hungry for a burger or a taco or, well, a half-dozen cheeses paired with mounds of crackers. Some of us go right at that Brie, that blue, that—what’s this soft one made with: sheep’s milk?—and enjoy the unscripted nature of stuffing our faces while chatting with winery reps and guzzling Sangiovese rose. Properly warmed up, we find our name tags at the dinner table and settle down.
Enter the wines. It’s safe to say expectations are modest. As mentioned, we’ve been drinking very good Napa and Sonoma wine all week, the likes of Stag’s Leap, Staglin, Cakebread, Jordan, Cline and Silver Oak.
I figure we will try a trio of Lodi options, one each brought by the winery reps, Marissa Lange of LangeTwins, David Phillips of Michael David and Joan Kautz of Ironstone. But soon a dozen bottles are open and being passed family style, much like the mashed potatoes or gravy.
‘Hey, can you guys pass that Cabernet Franc, it looks really good.’ ‘No problem, we’ll trade it for that Petite Syrah.’
For most of the week, we have been sitting at tables, facing flights of glasses, trying a small pour in each while being briefed on it, and then, in some cases, spitting. Tonight we go at our own pace. There is a shift from tasting to drinking, from analyzing to enjoying. I try a gulp of each of the three reds in front of me with the lamb chops.
This is fun. I ask for the ‘Rapture’ Cabernet Sauvignon, pour a quarter-glass, and take a slug. That’s a big one! It’s by the same guys who make 7 Deadly Zins, which I’ve had in China. Noted.
I take another bite of lamb, then shovel creamy potatoes gratin into my mouth, and feel a bit homesick. They are (almost) as good as my Mom’s. I think that maybe next time I visit her, I’ll take some Lodi wine, get some lamb chops, and try to recreate this pairing. Wine and thoughts now flow fast and easy, the themes from King’s talk materializing in front of me.
He told us about the 100-plus varieties of grapes in Lodi, including many arcane ones, and here we are drinking ‘Obsession‘ Symphony, made with a cross of Muscat of Alexander and Grenache Gris. It has a floral aroma, a pleasant freshness and acidity, apple and pear flavors, a touch of sweetness. When Kautz tells me the China importer is Vinolia, I realize I’ve had this before, in the company’s shop in Beijing.
“You get a lot of lychee, pear and jasmine,” says Kautz. “Honeysuckle.” It’s delicious. And, in terms of arcane, there is still a Tannat dessert wine—which will be a first for me—to come.
King also told us about Lodi’s diverse sub-regions, which means it is no one-trick pony with a given grape, as I see by the two Cabernet Francs. Michael David ‘Inkblot’ lives up to its name: a deep dark drop with soft rich berry fruit and a nice oak balance. Plush. In contrast, Ironstone is lighter, with a whiff of toasted oak and sweet cherry, and a juicy fruity body—cherry there, too—and a nice spicy finish. Intriguing contrasts.
And he told us about Lodi’s history. Side by side, we try two Zinfandels from century-old vineyards, one from LangeTwins (ripe red and black berries, hints of mocha and spices, a smooth body that makes it tempting to gulp) and one from Ironstone (violet aromas, a quite full and fruity if tighter mouth feel, and, like the Cabernet Franc, spice at the finish). Apparently one of these Zinfandel vineyards is a year older than the other. Let’s not even go there, people of Lodi. Stay relaxed!
Feeling rosy, I pull out a Chinese wine I brought on the trip, a bottle from Helan Qing Xue in Ningxia. I realize the fruitiness of the Lodi wines might make this one seem a bit green but I’d like our hosts to try something from a region in China that is steadily becoming as ambitious as Lodi about finding a higher place in the wine world. Then I make a final run through some of my favorites on the table—including another gulp of that ‘Rapture’ Cabernet Sauvignon—before we call it a night.
Does all of this mean Lodi is an amazing wine region? I don’t know. We spent less than a day in Lodi, I’ve only tasted a dozen or so wines from there before this trip, and context—a relaxed meal after days with many structured tastings—can have a big impact on one’s senses. But that dinner served as an eye-opener in showing the region’s diversity and quality, in positioning it on my mental wine map. Curiosity piqued, I look forward to relaxing with more wines from Lodi.
I’ve long been a fan of the annual Hilton Food & Wine Experience. I’ve gone to this fair every year for a decade, held contests on my blogs to give away hundreds of tickets and overnight stays–including in the presidential suite–to promote it, helped arrange this record-setting event, and powwowed with hotel management on strategy as recently as last summer. This year? The Hilton contacted me because they heard from someone in the media that I was into wine and might be interested in their event. Based on this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this, I’d say that’s a good bet. Anyway, institutional memory doesn’t seem to be a strong point with these guys. Or Google search. And yes, I’m a bit bitter about the whole situation.
Anyway, lots of people have been asking what’s happening at this year’s fair, which isn’t surprising as there seems to be little very buzz. Here are the details I have:
The 18th Hilton Food & Wine Experience is slated for 11 AM to 7 PM on October 31, which could be a “hair of the dog” opportunity for those celebrating Halloween early on Friday or a warm-up for those planning to party on Saturday.
There will be over 25 wine suppliers with over 400 labels, which sounds low for that many participants. The poster only lists a few suppliers so I asked around and talked to the hotel, and participants include China Wine & Spirits, The Wine Republic, ASC, 1421 Wines, East Meets West, Le Sommelier International, Signature Wines, Mercuris, Australian Natural and Montrose, among others.
You can buy wine on site. Traditionally, the fair has only been for samples, but there were some sales last year and it looks like it’ll be wide open this year, which will be happy news for many people. (Who wants to guess what percent of those people will buy wines at one table and then put them down while tasting at another table and never find them again? I’m going with 22 percent.)
I’m told there will be tastings of “oysters, chocolate, foie gras, ice cream, cold cuts and cheeses”.
And that Hilton “will focus more on the education part” this year, specifically on classes focused on individual grape varieties.
As for the entry fee, if you arrive between 11 AM and noon, it’s rmb88 for the tasting and rmb228 for the tasting plus lunch buffet. If you arrive after noon, it’s rmb148 for the tasting and rmb268 for the tasting and buffet. (There is a 15 percent surcharge on tickets.) I realize the poster below doesn’t list those specific prices but I confirmed them with the hotel.
The events scene in Beijing has evolved a great deal during the past few years. The craft beer festivals, in particular, have taken things up a few notches with a savvy mix of social media, cool posters and logos, and media outreach. This wine fair could use a bit more of that spirit, especially as very few events last 18 years, let alone when it comes to wine and China. In short, jia you Hilton! Anyway, if you enjoy wine, this event should offer excellent value and you will no doubt get your fill of fun on Saturday. For ticket sales, contact laura.wang (at) hilton.com.
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