Beijing Boyce

After Torres China organized Taste of the Nations last November, Beijing consumers found other local wine distributors lining up a good portion of their portfolios for tastings (see these write-ups on events by Palette Wines, GELIPU-Winelink, and ASC). It turned out to be a cheap way to try a lot of wine, so let’s hope it works a second time because Taste of Nations II is coming up in less than two weeks.

This year’s event takes place at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Beijing on September 20 and includes wines from Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, the United States, Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa, Hungary, China, and Australia. Here is a snippet of the invite from Torres (I highly recommend making a reservation if you want to attend):

We will prepare over 150 wines from 12 countries. Ticket at RMB 228 including free-flow of wines, canapés, live performance and much more…

我们准备了来自于12个不同国家的超过150种葡萄酒。免费畅饮所有葡萄酒，美味小食，现场表演，以及更多…… 只需人民币228元。

Due to limited capacity, please make your reservations now. Contact: Tony at 51655519-284 or tonyli@torres.com.cn”.

由于席位有限，请您现在就预订：致电51655519-284, 李先生或电子邮件至 tonyli@torres.com.cn

After a tortuous wait at the bank on Friday as several million people picked up their Paralympics tickets, and finding one guy already scalping his recently acquired purchases in the parking lot, I headed to OT Lounge to get the truth about its bitters.

Along with diversifying the cocktail list, boosting the collection of single malts, and adding a thrice-weekly live music program at this bar / lounge / patio near the St. Regis Hotel, manager Leon Lee has started to make house bitters (see here for more on these potions).

The bitters sit in glass jars on the top shelf behind the bar and look like something you would find in a Chinese medicine shop. The base alcohol is erguotou and Lee steeps the ingredients, which include orange slices, ginger, lemongrass, and saffron, for between two weeks and four months. Grapefruit bitters can be made in as little as two days, he says, although because pulp gets into the mix, they have only a one-month shelf life.

We sampled several cocktails, including a version of the Part & Parcel, with vodka, grapefruit juice, and grapefruit bitters. The bitters toned down the juice and made for a pleasant after-work drink. The most intriguing cocktail: Titian’s Temptation, a mix of Campari, Sambuca, and lemon juice. It could use refinement, as the Sambuca blows your socks off on first smell and sip, but it grew on me and left me anything but bitter.

(Photo: www.chow.com)