Beijing Boyce

UPDATE: This week’s contest is closed! The winner will be announced tomorrow – I will get meet with two trustworthy members of the public. I will ask one to write the names of the entrants on pieces of paper and stick them in the hat. The other will pick the winner. Look for a new contest on Thursday and thanks to everyone who participated in this one.

Hot on the heels of The Haiku Challenge, I’m kicking off this blog’s second contest: Celebrity Pub Crawl. The idea: each week I post a photo of a movie character or two and readers propose which bar (or bars) they’d take him, her, or them to.

List your bar recommendation in the comments section of this post and you’ll be entered into a weekly draw for:

- A bottle of Grace Vineyard Tasya’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Torres

- A package of four books – Insider’s Guide to Beijing 2008, Mandarin Phrasebook, Healthy Chinese Cuisine: A Restaurant Ordering Guide, and Spicy Chinese Cuisine: A Restaurant Ordering Guide – from Immersion Guides.

I will put up a new celebrity photo every Thursday. The deadline for entering the draw is Tuesday at noon. The winner will be announced the next day. (Note: I can only ship prizes to addresses in Beijing. One entry per week per person, please.)

Here we go…

Week 1: Celebrity Pub Crawl

Crockett and Tubbs from Miami Vice (the TV show, not the movie)

(c) NBC Universal

Frankly, I’m taking Crockett and Tubbs to BabyFace and somehow we are getting their Ferrari Daytona Spider inside so they can smash it through the glass facade, do a 360 on Gongti West, tear up the Pavillion’s patio, and then race off, all while Tubbs casually reclines in the front seat with a bottle of Chivas in one hand and a bottle of green tea in the other. And later we’ll cruise down Sanlitun North so they can rough up some “lady bar” touts.

Anyway, check the opening credits of the show and a clip that I think of every time I hear Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”, the latter covered in this Wikipedia entry:

While the show didn’t invent pastels it made them popular. The other aspects of Miami Vice considered revolutionary lay in its music, cinematography, and imagery, which made large segments of each episode resemble a protracted music video. Perhaps the best example of combining these three aspects is found in the pilot episode “Brother’s Keeper” when Crockett and Tubbs are in the Ferrari Daytona Spyder, driving through a damp, nighttime Miami downtown heading to a somber showdown with a sinister, murdering drug lord as “In the Air Tonight” by Phil Collins surrealistically plays along.

Think I’ll get out the pastel shirt this weekend. In the meantime, post your itinerary and you’ll have a chance to win wine and books – do any two things go better together?

In addition to the list of wine events I posted earlier this week, here are two more:

March 7, 6-8 PM, Atrium Bar (Great Wall Sheraton), free
Lindemans wine tasting, including reserve range, with Jebsen
March 8, 6 PM, La Baie des Anges
New wine list event, with more than 50 wines; RSVP in advance and receive a 15 percent discount on bottles (6657-1605

Here is the original list of upcoming tastings;

Upcoming Beijing tastings

March 6, 7 PM, Brasserie Flo (Rainbow Plaza), RMB498
Gerard Bertrand wine dinner, by East Meets West; six wines; 30 seats available; To RSVP, contact Felix (Brasserie Flo) at 13161-338-874 or Wendy (EMW) at 6445-5797.

March 7, 6:30 PM, Sequoia Café (Sanlitun), ~RMB100
Weekly tasting; join the e-vite list by contacting Frank at frank.siegel@gmail.com

March 8, 6 PM, Nearby the Tree, RMB150
Women winemakers, by Beijing Wine Club; 5 wines with light canapes; contact: Gabe at info@beijingwineclub.com

March 12, 7 PM, Cafe Europa, RMB150
Mount Langi Ghiran tasting, by The Wine Republic; four wines with “tasting plates”

March 15, Blu Lobster, RMB1788
Chateau Cos d’Estournel Grand Cru Classe dinner, by ASC, with Cos d’Estournel CEO Jean Guillaume Prats; RSVP by calling Blu Lobster at 6841-2211, x6728

March 20, 7 PM, Grill Restaurant (Radisson SAS), RMB588
Kendall-Jackson wine dinner, by ASC, with Jackson Asia-Pacific Regional Director Jack Cook; RSVP by contacting Helen Lu (ASC) at 6418-1598, x226, or Daisy Wang (Radisson) at 5922-3152

March 26, 6:30 PM, Aria (China World), RMB1200
Riedel wine tasting dinner, by ASC, with company CEO Maximilian Riedel; 4 wines; participants take home 4 Riedel glasses; RSVP by contacting Helen Lu (ASC) at 6418-1598, x226

Note: To get an wine event listed, send the event information, preferably in text format, to beijingboyce@yahoo.com.

Upcoming China trade shows

Shanghai China International Wine Exposition, 10 AM-5 PM, March 14-16, Shanghai Mart*

Wine Culture China, March 16 -18, China World Trade Center*

Vinexpo Asia-Pacific 2008, 9:30 AM-6:30 PM, May 27-29, Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Center

* A hat tip to Ricardo D for sending me these links.

Cafe Europa’s Austrian wine lineup (Photo: C. Thompson)

Forty people gathered at Café Europe on January 24 for the launch of four Austrian wines the restaurant is not only selling, but also importing. Good times all around (see this China Daily article).

Expect to see more restaurateurs import their own wine and make their own beer (with The Saddle and 1949: The Hidden City planning to do the latter).

For Austrian wine lovers, or for those interested in giving them a try, here are the options:

Schloss Maissau Gruner Veltliner DAC 2006 (retail: RMB150; in restaurant: RMB180 bottle / RMB38 glass)
Johann Topf Riesling, Wechselberg 2006 (retail: RMB210; in restaurant: RMB250 bottle)
Umathum, Zweigelt 2006 (retail: RMB180; in restaurant: RMB200 bottle / RMB40 glass)
Prieler, Schuetzner Stein, 2004 (retail: RMB320; in restaurant: RMB350 bottle)

The two wines by the glass are good value – they are not only tasty, but also unavailable anywhere else in town.