Beijing Boyce

Like some 500 other people, I attended that’s Beijing’s Bars and Clubs Awards last Thursday at The Bank. Here are seven random thoughts from the sweaty, red wine fueled night that was (photos courtesy of TBJ - see the full gallery).

(1)

Suzie in the valley of the China Dolls: They split votes, but… 

I predicted to Echo from Q Bar and others that: 1) Suzie Wong and China Doll would steal each other’s votes and 2) allow Q Bar to sneak through and win as Bar / Club of the Year. Well, 1) happened, but just as I was feeling smart and the Q Bar people perhaps thought I had inside info, D-22 up and won.

D’oh!

No doubt, being the lone Haidian candidate helped D-22, and its owners were shocked by the win, but credit goes where due. It’s obviously doing something right since it was up for this award in 2006, too. Congrats!

… instead of Q going through, it was… D twenty-who!?

(2)

Stella Artois on tap, big pours of very drinkable red, and Freixenet sparkling wine - good times! 

It’s all free!

(3)

Bar owners were pumped about the awards and it was good to see some competitive spirit. It was also fun to meet owners and staff in a social setting - I actually met Leo from Cheers, er, outside of Cheers!

They shot their way to an “outstanding” award.

I won’t make any “you’ve probably been in Bed with him” jokes. I’ll just say he was Cho-sen by the people.

Centro hanging with its haul.

(4) 

The awards were punctuated by a pole dancer and two bikini top-clad women swinging what seemed to be flaming keroscene-soaked tin cans on the ends of meter-long chains. Can’t say I saw that coming and I’m happy a mishandled can didn’t ignite The Bank’s draperies and send us to flaming screaming deaths.

That top does so NOT go with those shoes.

She’s hot.

(5)

Chad, Kris and Luge - ready for reality?

The Rickshaw’s Chad, Kris and Luge need their own reality show. It’d be hard to find three guys who have a better time but differ more in personality and looks. An American, an Aussie and a Chinese - they could be packaged as a young Harry Morgan, the Crocodile Dundee of Beijing and China’s Fonz (heyyy!), teaming up to run a bar with all the craziness that comes from happy hours, drunk patrons and cultural misunderstandings among a diverse clientele. Just stick a few cameras on the first floor, second fl0or and deck, and one in that public bathroom around the side (none in the kitchen - the wings recipe needs protection). Seriously, three fun characters in a funky spot called The Rickshaw in a city with global attention in the run-up to the Olympics - you wouldn’t watch this?

Yes, we would!

I’m going to need a whole new wardrobe.

(6)

And in the Beard of the Year category, it’s Cheers…

Losing by a (very, very long) hair to Goose and Duck.

(7) 

Now that that vote is over, how about casting one for yours truly in the China Blog Awards? Just go here, scroll to Beijing Boyce, and click the ‘+’ sign until its green. Easy as drinking free booze at a bar awards party… and better for your liver!

Thanks to GS for forwarding a South China Morning Post article about China’s Grace Vineyard - Shanxi takes on wine world - by Mark Graham (registration required). I think these two paragraphs sum things up:

In less than five years, Grace Vineyard, located in out-of-the-way Shanxi province has not only turned into a profitable venture, it also is producing vintages that are being accepted on to the wine lists of the Peninsula and Shangri-La hotels.

It is a remarkeable success story, especially given the challenges of setting up a vineyard from scratch in such a hardscrabble region.

Grace CEO Judy Leissner - check my April interview with her - stresses Grace’s low volume. “We produce 500,000 bottles a year compared to the 100 million bottles of the major producers such as Great Wall, Changyu and so on. We are serious about wine.” She also notes that a second vineyard is planned.

The dominant picture in the article shows an elderly picker, cigarette dangling from his mouth, holding a container of grapes. It serves to underscore that while China’s market for wine develops, huge inequalities exist. As SCMP puts it:

Few people in Shanxi itself would be able to afford even the cheapest, HK$68 wine in the range; peasants living nearby would need to splurge several months’ wages to buy the top-of-the-shelf Chairman’s Reserve, that retails for HK$488.

Grace fared well both in my first blind tasting of Chinese wines and in my second (the notes will soon be posted). It also came out on top in a major blind tasting in Shanghai. And this weekend, I’m planning to try the winery’s Deep Blue — which is 60 percent Merlot, 30 percent Cabernet Franc and 10 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, which is not yet on the market, and which - fingers crossed - holds the promise of being among the best wines ever to be made in China.

Torres distributes Grace wine.

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.