Chinese wine tasting on deck at Snap Pop in Beijing's CBD on Saturday.

All wines by Ian Dai, who is exploring grapes and styles in Ningxia, Yunnan, Hebei and beyond, and best-known for his brand Xiao Pu aka Petit Garden.

Dai has a strong focus on minimal intervention wines. And also brought a cider he made.

First photo was taken by Christina.

#wine #winetasting #winepromotion #chinawine #chinesewines #yunnan #yunnanwine #ningxiawine #huailaiwine #shangrila #viognier #syrah #marselan

Chinese bubbly? Boutique Ningxia winery Helan Qing Xue, known for its elegant Bordeaux-style Jia Bei Lan wines, is now making sparkling wine.

A new project by the winemaker, Zhang Jing.

Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Traditional method.

https://www.grapewallofchina.com/2023/05/23/sparkle-city-ningxias-helan-qingxue-gets-bubbly/

#wine #china #sparklingwine #chinawine #ningxiawine #bubbly

'China's New Wave of Natural Wine: Adversity has sparked diversity for China's winemakers, with niche wines emerging in what was a very traditional wine market."

My article in Wine Searcher.

In sum, Chinese wines became more diverse during the COVID era, driven by global inspiration, local ambition and economic necessity.

https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2023/03/chinas-new-wave-of-natural-wine

#wine #naturalwine #petnat #orangewine #biodynamicwine #china #chinawine #chinesewine

Spontaneous food and wine pairing is often the most fun.

We ended up getting dumplings (jiaozi) and steamed buns (baozi) at 4 AM in Beijing -- and brought a pair of bottles from Club Dada to enjoy with those treats.

A Chardonnay-Semillon minimal intervention wine from Margaret River and a Sangiovese from Emilia Romagna. As expected, how well the wines matched was tied to what kind of dipping sauce we used, with all kinds of ratios of soy sauce, chili oil, vinegar and more.

In any case, we were diligent and finished all the food and all the wine.

#wine #winetasting #winelife #winepairing #china #chinawine

Quirky wine tasting.

Three twists on Sichuan dish mapo tofu -- pizza, pasta and nachos -- with seven wines at restaurant The Rug in Sanlitun (Beijing).

The wines included three tea-infused Chardonnays from Lingering Clouds in Ningxia, a trio of Georgian wines, and one wine made with Longyan (Dragon Eye) grapes from just outside Beijing.

Collective top match: Jasmine-tea infused Chardonnay with mapo tofu pizza. Big aromas with big flavors.

Best Georgia match: Dora Rkatsiteli. This skin-contact white wine worked especially well with the cheesier dishes--the pizza and the pasta. (All three Georgian wines imported by Georgia Selections.)

My three favorite wines simply for drinking: the Longjing-infused Chardonnay pet-nat (fresh, crisp and with nice fragrance), the Dora Saperavi (a fresh supple fruity wine) and that Longyan by Clovitis (zingy lemon character).

A fun night of eating, drinking and relaxing with friends.

#wine #winetasting #winelife #chinawine #ningxiawine #georgianwine

Chinese wines in Sweden! Stockholm is stocked with Chinese wines thanks to Ludvig Sääf, who also imports Chinese baijiu and craft beer via his company Lu Spirits.

Saaf lists Canaan and Domaine Franco-Chinois, based just beyond Beijing and considered among China’s better wineries. They are available at seven venues in Stockholm.

“People are really impressed at how good these wines are," says Saaf. But as in China, the prices are high.

“Canaan has really been helpful setting the price with the local market in mind,” he says. “But Chinese wines are still way more expensive than the same quality European wines.”

“I am optimistic about the wines because they are unique, particularly the Riesling, which customers have found to be quite different from European Rieslings,” says Saaf.

“It is good that Chinese wines bring something more than just novelty, that they also bring new flavors and styles to the shelf.”

Full story:

https://www.grapewallofchina.com/2023/02/14/scanaandinavia-chinas-canaan-dfc-wines-in-sweden/

#wine #winebusiness #chinawine #china

COVID full circle: A bittersweet moment recently as I stood in the finger-number cold and flag-snapping wind at Domaine Franco-Chinois, the first winery I visited after China finally eased its COVID rules in December and the last one I went to before the virus struck three years ago.

Domaine Franco-Chinois / DFC and its sibling and neighboring winery Canaan are just outside Beijing and rank among China's best.

I tagged along with critic Shuai Zekun of jamessuckling.com and tasted 39 wines, ranging from Bordeaux-style reds to crisp fresh whites to a delectable late harvest Petit Manseng to a couple of skin-contact wines featuring grapes rarely seen in China.

A look at those two visits, at the two wineries and at a diverse tasting.

#wine #winetourism #winetasting #winebusiness #winetasting #huailai #beijing #china #chinawine #covid #covid19

Lunar New Year wine tasting in Beijing with bottles from Ningxia, Shanxi and Hebei. This was our third CHILL AF outdoor wine tasting and our fingers and toes were indeed numb after three hours in the wild. But it was worth it given the quality of the wine and view: we opened these bottles at the edge of a frozen pond within the park, with blue skies, traditional buildings and the downtown skyline in sight.

The white wine from Clovitis is made with local grape Longyan / Dragon Eye and is light, lemon-y and zippy. The Cabernet-driven red blends are from Grace Vineyard, a supple easy-drinking and fruity wine, and Helan Qing Xue, which had dark berry and toast-y aromas, the latter from the oak barrels in which it was aged.

Good friends, good wines, good talk, good times.

#winetasting #chinesewine #ningxiawine #chinawine #lunarnewyear #yearoftherabbit #beijing

Chinese wine story in Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat.

Includes a visit to Lion winery in Beijing: most vines are buried for the winter in northern China, but Lion has hybrids that can withstand the weather. And the wines, while a bit offbeat, are quite enjoyable. And still a work in progress.

Also, a visit to CHEERS, a wine shop chain founded in 2011 in Beijing. In this case, the reporter attended their Wednesday night wine buffet, which features five different wines each week, and talked to consumers.

I tagged along on the visit to Lion, in part because I wanted to see 86-year-young Zou Fulin, the chief consultant, who I first met when he at a fellow Fangshan District winery, Bolongbao.

Zou has endless energy, giving us a tour that lasted several hours and covered the vineyard, winery, cellar and his hundreds of test samples (see photo 2).

Story is here:

https://www.hs.fi/ulkomaat/art-2000009184008.html

#wine #chinawine #beijingwine #hybridgrapes #winemaking #fangshan #beijing #china

More skin-contact white wines made in China, this time by Canaan winery just outside of Beijing.

- The Riesling has 1 month of skin contact in amphora, then 6 months of aging in old oak.

- The white blend, with Muscat, Chenin Blanc, Ehrenfelser, Müller-Thurgau and more, has 6 weeks of skin contact in stainless steel.

Both wines are fresh and floral, with that Riesling having ample lemon-y character, while the white blend's aromas dance all over the place: chrysanthemum, passion fruit, jasmine, citrus peel and more.

Anyway, I brought back one bottle of each to include in my next tasting in Beijing. Looking forward to sharing them!

#wine #china #chinawine #chinesewine #skincontactwine #amberwine #amphora #riesling #muscat, #cheninblanc #ehrenfelser #mullerthurgau #zhongfa #domainefrancochinois #grapewallofchina #winelife