Hilton Food & Wine Experience XII: Win two tickets, an overnight stay, breakfast
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The only thing better than spending seven hours sampling from among hundreds of wines – as well as chocolate, coffee, beer, and more – at the Beijing Hilton Food & Wine Experience would be to then stumble, stagger, crawl – what have you – up to a room afterward. Alack and alas, that is beyond the budget at Chez Boyce, but one reader will get such a treat. Once again, I am holding a contest and the winner gets two tickets to this November 14 event (1 PM to 8 PM), an overnight stay at The Beijing Hilton (valid only for that night), and breakfast the next morning at Elements.
Last year, I asked people to choose one person with whom they would like to share a bottle of wine. This year, I am asking people to write about a good wine experience they have had in Beijing.
The contest closes on Monday Tuesday at 5 PM; I’ll announce the winner the next day. Even if you don’t win, try to make the Food & Wine Experience, celebrating its twelfth year – it is hard to beat a full day of gluttony, which includes a buffet, for RMB200.
For more details on the event, see here. I’ll also soon have an interview with the Hilton’s head sommelier, Julia Zhu.
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See also:
2006: The year I tried 52 wines and lost my cell phone
2007: The year I attended a seminar with Jeremy Oliver and later accidentally broke a bottle of Shiraz on the Hilton’s marble staircase
- Are you experienced? Hilton’s tenth annual wine event (2007)
- Wrap up: The Hilton food and wine experience (2007)
2008: The year Yiftach Bar described a Louis Latour Chardonnay as a “white wine with balls.”
- Eat, drink, and stay contest: Win Food & Wine Experience tickets, a deluxe room, and breakfast at the Hilton (2008)
- Hilton Food & Wine Experience: And the winners are… (2008)
- The Hilton food and wine experience: ten thoughts (2008)
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Here’s mine: A week last May during which I attended wine lunches with Peter Gago of Penfold’s and Gaia Gaja of Gaja, participated in two days of sessions of the International Congress of Chinese Cuisine and Wine (we paired foods against ~dozen wines), attended a wine dinner hosted by Judy Leissner of Grace Vineyard, a tasting of Guigal wines with Philippe and Marcel Guigal, and vertical tastings of Penfold’s (Grange) and Chateau Margaux, dropped in on a Robert Mondavi memorial tasting at Sequoia Cafe, and, last but not last, went to a wine dinner with Robert Parker on the Great Wall and then joined a trade tasting with him a few days later. Whew!
I had a damn fine evening drinking house red at The Capital Club with Beijing Boyce and Club GM Bertrand not so long ago. I don’t really drink wine. Just gimme the fucking package.
Drinking of Chinese made wine is often disappointing. The so-called wine served on Air China is virtually undrinkable. A few good wines can be found though. One of the best is not available in Beijing sadly. It is simply described as Yunnan Red Wine and bears the famous SS China top brand logo. On closer inspection one finds out why it is so drinkable, the label informs us that the wine growers of Yunnan were instructed by French missionaries in the art of growing grapes and making wine. Perhaps the best experience, and the best wine drunk in China was during a visit to the Great Hall of the People just prior to National Day. Although it was a Great Wall red, it was very comparable to a good Bordeaux. Unfortunately they failed to leave even an empty bottle to hand so I cannot impart the name or vintage, but it was indeed the best I’ve had in China to date, compliments from the Chinese govt.!
one very good experience was indeed at the hilton/one east, at a tasting led by julia zhu, as a matter of fact. it was early july just this past summer, and the wines featured were imported/distributed by links concept. some of the canapes weren’t so appetizing, and there was that pesky hotel “service charge” tacked onto the bill, but overall most of the wines were excellent, and the setting itself was very relaxed and laid back, conducive to meeting some nice people, and julia was friendly, attentive and informative throughout.
if only i didn’t live out in wudaokou…
I went to Julia’s regular wine tasting at Hilton one Thursday and was the only one there for an hour or so. It gave me a great opportunity to talk with her and to discuss the wines and the wine scene in Beijing. Later on a few media people joined and when i walked out of Hilton that night I’ve already secured Editor’s review for a magazine for my place. Now that’s multitasking.
Club des 5 wine dinner at CRU at the JW Marriott.
Five Chateau owners from Bordeaux rotated tables – during each of the five courses of the meal.
The steak at CRU was the best I’ve eaten in Beijing (note: this was in 2008).
The wines shined…and the event was intimate, not too stuffy and everyone seemed to have an excellent time. Sometimes the wine events with the celebrity winemakers are the least fun while the representatives from smaller wine operations are more personable and the events more fun.
Last Friday evening I was enjoying a quiet glass of Cabernet with a friend at Aperitivo. After several glasses and some quality conversation I headed into the restroom. As I returned from the bathroom I found my drinking companion acting rather strangely and insisting we ‘gan bei’ our fine beverages. Not one to poop a party I dutifully finished the contents of my glass, only to discover a strange acrid taste laying dormant until now.
“What the…?” I began to inquire, when all of a sudden my companion leapt from his seat and commenced overturning the restaurant tables. There is a reason I don’t often go drinking with Acid Dave. Unfortunately my spidey senses were triggered just in time to feel the first tweaks of this mind bending drug entering my consciousness and yelling to be noticed.
A Gorilla of a man came over and began insisting we leave but Acid Dave could not be placated. It was all I could do to show the bottle of red sat on the table “see?” I pleaded “we are gentlemen and we drink wine” After trying to decipher the gorillas strange language I plucked our Fine Bottle from the table and began beating Acid Dave with it until he came to his senses. We weren’t welcome here. Very well. Men of our stature and fine tastes in wine would be warmly welcomed in more Sophisticated Circles.
Upon arriving at Centro I was pleased to discover that a fine looking woman greeted us at the door. “No” she replied, “Our serving staff are not monkeys”. Very well, this was more like it. Acid Dave was still unfortunately speaking in the language of the Gorillas. I took control and thrust our now nearly empty bottle of Cabernet at the barman “wine wine wine” I informed him. My bottle was no match for his list of wines. “Impressive” I believe I hooted before slugging down the remainder from my bottle. Upon looking down I realized I was wearing a great deal of wine on my chest. This would not do. We were Sophisticated Men in a Respectable Establishment.
Time passed in a most bizarre fashion until shirtless and penniless I was ejected from high society. Gorillas, one and all. I left Acid Dave grappling with some circus performers with tiny mustaches and jumped into the nearest taxi. “wine wine wine” I garbled. A confused shifu can be dangerous so I hooted what I believed to be a friendly noise. Ah ha, we were away.
The Bus Bar had the friendliest of crowds and my choices in wine were beautifully restricted to Red or White. “Yes” I would reply every time I was asked, hilarity ensued. In this condition, too many choices could be dangerous indeed. God bless Acid Dave for the best night ever had in Beijing featuring wine. I hear the Hilton puts on quite a spread and I should return the favor…
Well, I certainly can’t compete with either name-dropping or acid-dropping, but I’m a firm believer that the circumstances around a memorable bottle of wine are every bit as important as the vineyard and vintage.
About a year ago I was having dinner with friends at FACE when my mobile rang. I picked it up – my Mom was on the other line, voice quaking with excitement and emotion. After several years of battling colon cancer, she’d just returned from the Dr. where she’d received her first clean bill of health – the disease was in remission!
After hanging up we immediately ordered several bottles of Beringer Chardonnay. I’m not much of a fan of white wine, much less Chardonnay (to say even less of Beringer)… but its my Mom’s favorite, and the glasses we raised in her honor tasted better than any Opus One or Domaine Romanée-Conti.
Sure, you often hear a chardonnay described as having hints of vanilla, or peppers, or toasty oak. Well this 2007 Private Reserve Chardonnay from Napa Valley tasted like…
VICTORY
(Did I lay it on a bit thick there at the end? I mean… come on… I invoked an ill mother, drinking to her health with friends, and even tossed in tasting notes that included victory… that’s GOTTA be good for a romp at the Hilton. Look… I promise I’ll get hammered in my Dad’s honor. He’s got the gout…)
I have spent the last five summers in Beijing and the countryside of China doing odd and end jobs as is often the case with us foreigners who have been bitten by the China bug…but this time, I am here for real. Well, kind off…I have the high hopes of bringing California wines to the middle kingdom. A partner in Hong Kong is eagerly trying to tap into the “largest wine market in the world!” and wants me to facilitate that process. But after garnering a better understanding of China’s wine scene, I very quickly came to realize that task is not so easy. I have, therefore, differed importing for the moment, and proceeded to take a different approach-educate both the Chinese and me. It was within this undertaking that I had my best wine experience in Beijing. Though I selfishly hope, it will not be my last!
With my Flip recording device in hand, a bag slung over my shoulder carrying the weight of two average bottles of California wine and a ton of a plastic cups, I hit the streets. I offered wine to any DongCheng street vendor, magazine shop salesman/woman, construction worker, shop owner, anyone who was willing to talk and share a pixi-cup of Napa’s mediocre with me. I asked their opinion, what they tasted, what they smelled, what it reminded them of…and the responses were remarkable. For many, this was the first glass of wine they ever had. So that alone was special for us both. Moreover, sharing a drink stereotypically reserved for the upper class with the backbone of China was equally as exciting; I was able to demonstrate that wine can be and should be enjoyed by all.
It was as if the wine was a quasi ambassador of America to China. For example, I spoke with these people about family values. How we, Americans also appreciate family relations. That the wine they were drinking was made on family operated vineyards by families for family and friends to enjoy. We shared personal as well as generalized stories about our countries; over our cup of wine, we gained knowledge of one another’s culture, home, and taste buds!
I hope in my new business endeavor that California wine can permeate Chinese society rather than impose itself. This wine experience suggested that I could potentially reach that goal.
Though my new friends do not have the great fortune of attending the Hilton’s Food and Wine Experience, through my participation, I hope to learn more and taste more so I can proliferate with even more veracity an understanding of wine to China.
on a balmy summer night in 2004, i met an englishman with a rakish grin and the ability to spin a great yarn. we got along as everyone else got along on the now legendary sanlitun nanjie, that is to say, drunkenly, but i had a feeling that there was something more to his cockiness and tales about child stardom. we had a whirlwind romance and i left two weeks later for north africa.i thought we were too star crossed to go further, but he followed me and we spent a week on my sun-drenched, mediterranean balcony.thus began an improbable relationship across three continents. when we broke up a year and a half later under the stress of a transatlantic relationship, i had a feeling that wasn’t the end of it all.
i spent the next two years flitting about the world – the states, europe, south america – trying to get over him until i realized that he was the standard i was comparing every man against.
so i came home, with a bottle of my favorite malbec that i had bought in buenos aires.
on a sunny day in april last year, we saw each other again for the first time in two years. we sat on a bench in jingshan park, and cracked open that bottle. we people watched, danced with old ladies in the park, talked about our lives. he toasted me on my independence. we’ve been living together ever since.
we’ll definitely put that night at the hilton to good use.
Does Danny Bonaduce have an English accent..?
Dang!!!! I’m a newcomer to Beijing, and only found this post today. And I’ve been missing my red wine tasting group back home. However, we did have a great experience with wine recently at Capital M. Trying to decide which wine to order, the server humbly admitted he wasn’t very experienced or knowledgeable about wine; not a big deal. He then brought two bottles to our table (a Bordeaux and a cab), pouring generously from each. We enjoyed those and ordered our preference. A few moments later, he came over with yet a third bottle, this one a freshly opened duplicate of the Bordeaux we ordered. He poured another glass for us, just so we could compare it to the previously opened bottle. Besides the great food, venue and service, it was the WINE that made it such a memorable evening!