Beijing Boyce

A running joke among my wine-loving pals is that I’m on the payroll at Grace Vineyards. Maybe it’s because I interviewed Grace CEO Judy Leissner, or because I push her wines on people at hutong parties, or because they did so well at my first blind tasting (which reminds me, I need to write and post my long overdue notes from the sequel). Or maybe it’s because I’ve written about drinking Grace wines everywhere from Senses in Shanghai to Vincent Cafe in Beijing.

Whatever the case, here’s additional evidence that I’m not alone in liking them: Jancis Robinson’s site has a story (subscription needed) by Marcus Ford called “Chinese Wines again - sorry if you have had enough!” (thanks to Adam S for the tip).

“The idea had been in our minds for some time,” writes Ford, “[that] the Chinese wine world is going extraordinarily fast, but where is it going and is any of the wine really worth drinking,” he opens. To find out, 30 restaurant managers (including Ford), food and wine writers, and “keen and interested members of the public” met in Shanghai to give 85 Chinese wines a chance.

The good news:

Grace Vineyard was the star of the tasting, all of their white wines were selected as the best of the whites - the two vintages of the premium Chardonnay were chosen as the winners and the other wine considered was their regular Chardonnay bottling. In all the categories where Grace wines were shown they were commended and the 2004 Chairman’s Reserve (Cabernet Merlot Blend) was the universal favourite as the best wine on show. We all concluded that this really was a benchmark for quality in China and could rightly be compared with imported wines at a similar price - quite some statement when this wine retails as almost 400 rmb. Catai’s wines also showed well, particularly their Reserve Cabernet which was best in its class. Landsun’s regular Cabernet was also exceptional at its price point.

The bad news:

In general the quality of the cheaper wines on show was appalling, we were quite frankly astounded that some of the wines shown in the 60 rmb and below groups could be sold or drunk with any pleasure for anyone. They were truly awful- some faulty - reduction, sulphur, dead fruit and animal smells were the common tasting notes amongst this group of wines. At the other extreme in this cheaper category came wines that tasted entirely synthetic, either diluted and sugary or just chemically.

Importantly noted is that, unlike Grace,  most of the “Chinese” wines tasted were made at least in part with imported grapes.

I’ve recommended Grace to many people, particularly the Chardonnay, and will continue to do so, but I also hope to find other decent wines that are made solely with local grapes (can anyone let me know where to buy some Huadong Riesling!).

As mentioned many a time, the research can be quite enjoyable…