I cashed in some annual leave yesterday to attend the International Workshop on the Wine Market in China, held in Beijing, and it was time well spent.

Insightful lectures on the buying behaviors of local consumers, lessons for foreign winemakers looking to partner with China distributors, and government policies that impact foreign wines were capped with a tasting of 14 Chinese wines from at five (at least) provinces - it was my first chance to try wines from Jilin in the far northeast and Yunnan in the southwest and I think this was an intriguing part of the program as it was the first visit to China for many of the attendees.

I’ll post thoughts on the conference and the wines from next Monday…

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My body has filtered its fair share of wine during the past decade, but it was only a few weeks ago at The Bookworm that I finally attended a Riedel tasting. Riedel makes expensive machine- and hand-made crystal wine glasses in dozens of shapes. The glass for Merlot is different than the glass for Bordeaux, and so on. The idea is that the shape and volume of the glass determines how wine is aerated and where it falls on the tongue, and thus significantly influences how we smell and taste it.

A dozen of us began with a Chardonnay served, as you might guess, in a Riedel Chardonnay glass. A few sniffs and sips later, we poured the wine into one of those small glasses commonly used by restaurants and bars. The effect was striking. The bouquet seemed much weaker and the taste sour, as the smaller glass’ shape directed the wine away from the tip of our tongues, where our sense of sweetness lies. But what if rather than that obviously sub-par small glass we had used a different Riedel one? After trying the Sauvignon Blanc in its special vessel, we did just that, pouring the wine into the now-empty Chardonnay glass. The effect on the bouquet and taste was still evident, though less pronounced. We rounded out our testing with a Pinot Noir and a Cabernet Sauvignon.

1I asked if budget-minded souls could get these results by using a cheap glass with a shape similar to that of the Riedel. The answer was that crystal: 1) makes it easier to check wine clarity and; 2) allows for more aeration, as under a microscope it is rougher than glass. What can I say? No one had a microscope handy. In the end, the tasting was both an education of the senses and sheer marketing genius, for we had plunked down RMB250 each for what was partly a sales pitch. While Riedel is nice, I’m sticking for now with the RMB20 wine glasses I bought at the former Riverside Cafe — they are cheap and big, and since my friends tend to break stuff after a few bottles of wine, I’d hate to have that rough crystal scratching my linoleum floor. For those who do wish to indulge, Riedel is distributed exclusively in China by ASC.

(A version of  this post originally appeared on October 3, 2006 on www.beijingboyce.com.)

Get out your acronym finder as CAU (China Agricultural University), CSV (Chinese Society for Viticulture), CADIA (China Alcoholic Drinks Industry Association) and OIV (International Organization of Vine and Wine) team up for the International Workshop on the Chinese Wine Market and Wine-related Products, August 8 to 10 in Beijing.

Day 1 features a visit to the Huailai wine region’s Great Wall Winery and to the Great Wall itself, followed by a wine dinner.

Day 2 includes seminars on China’s current wine market, on government policies and regulations on imported wines in China, and on market research on Chinese buyers. Attendees will hear about the experiences of a boutique winery (Grace Vineyard) and a retailer (Metro) in China, and about brand positioning. The day will wrap up with a tasting of Chinese wines.

Day 3 includes foreign experts speakers about the wine industry in the US, France and Australia. An afternoon session will focus on the media and wine promotion in China.

The three-dayworkshop, including the wine tastings, dinners and winery tour, is 550 euros. There are more details here, but note that the exact itinerary will likely differ slightly.

According to this story, Earth-eating Girl Tilts At Guinness Record, an Inner Mongolian woman has her stomach set on eating dirt for two months:

The girl, called Wuqibalaqiqige, became a minor celebrity after the media broadcast stories about her curious eating habits last year… The girl said she feels no need to eat normal food now that she has discovered how much she likes to eat soil.

I suppose her diet is low-fat and high-protein (think worms), but what wines would go with it? I asked Campbell Thompson of ASC Fine Wines (when it comes to dining, he prefers not to soil himself, so to speak, but he did respond to my suggestion of an earth / Riesling pairing):

You could play with the idea of ‘terroir’ – the idea that well-made wines are an expression of the place they are from, which includes the idea that the mineral elements of the soil are expressed in the wine.

Good Rieslings are often ‘full of terroir’ – because they are made without oak or malolactic fermentation they are a fairly pure expression of the grapes, and the grapes in turn are a fairly pure expression of the soil and microclimate they come from. Sancerre (wine from the Loire Valley in France, made from Sauvignon Blanc grapes) is also often described as having a pronounced ‘mineral’ taste.

Personally, I’d suggest a good Seghesio Old Vine Zinfandel from California – it is rich and silky (so would help to get the dirt down your throat), and also clocks in at around 14.5% alcohol, which would also help to alleviate the negatives of a dirt-rich diet.

Malolactic fermentation? Maybe dirt doesn’t sound so bad after all. In any case, note that sauce can play a key factor in any pairing. If you enjoy sprinkling Tabasco on your earth, that Riesling might be a better pick than Zinfandel. And if you’re the type with a fancy for earth and black truffles, consider a Burgundy.

(Note: I spotted the story about Wuqibalaqiqige on chriswaugh_bj. This post originally appeared on January 30, 2007 on www.beijingboyce.com.)

Bacchus Wines is teaming up with Houhai’s La Baie des Anges, co-runner up in the TBJ awards‘ best wine list category, for a Rose competition: Cotes du Rhones Sud versus Cotes de Provence.

The event starts at 8 PM (100 kuai). Here’s the lineup:

Domaine des Pasquiers – Vin de Pays du Vaucluse 2006
Domaine de la Camarette – Cotes du Ventoux AOC 2006
L’Esprit de Provence – Cotes de Provence AOC 2005
Chateau Roubine – Cotes de Provences AOC 2006

There will be specials prices on Rosé all night. Check La Baie Des Anges website for a map.

It seems China World Hotel’s Aria isn’t the only local establishment being recognized by Wine Spectator. Wangfujing-based Garden of Delights – which has one of our city’s more spectacular interior designs – reports that the magazine has awarded it a 2007 Award of Excellence. Look for a Trimbach wine tasting in the Garden next month (details to come).

Word has it that China World Hotel bar Aria will be recognized in Wine Spectator magazine’s August issue as having one of the world’s best wine lists. I’ll have more on this in the coming week. The recognition comes on the heels of China-based Don St. Pierre Jr of ASC Fine Wines being included in Decanter magazine’s top-50 most influential wine industry people. See my interview with St Pierre Jr here.

All you need is wine…

Faced with a wine tasting in my home in two days and a glass collection devastated since that last purchase over a year ago at the long-gone Riverside Cafe, I went on a shopping mission last week. M-Dawg and Pony suggested the Flower Market and I hit pay dirt there. I dug up the 22-ounce, thin-rimmed, Bordeaux-style Stone Island beauties above for a mere 10 kuai each.

I picked up 36 and went back the next day for six more (all they had left), 12 Champagne flutes (10 kuai per) and a decanter (40 kuai). The first photo below shows the Bordeaux-style glass vis-a-vis a bottle of wine. The second adds in a flute and decanter. The third is for fun. (Click the thumbnails for larger pictures.)

I got my glasses at Jujiayuan, the shop farthest back in a group of three in the Flower Market’s basement. If you go there, mention the “guy who bought 30 glasses” and you’ll likely get that 10-kuai price without haggling. Since I bought all of the 22-ounce glasses, you might want to call Zhao Xu Fai 13391-936-198 at the store to see if he has restocked.

(This post previously appeared on February 26, 2007 on www.beijingboyce.com.)

You can teach monkeys many things, but I doubt that making booze is among them. It’s something they need to discover on their own.

(By the way, who wants to bet how long it will be before a local scientist claims that the monkeys in China were doing this at least a thousand years before those in Borneo?)

(Originally posted on April 12, 2007, on www.beijingboyce.com)