Beijing Boyce

Rather than write a lengthy report about Saturday’s Food & Wine Experience at The Hilton, I thought it would be more fun to interview myself. Here we go:

Was that you on The Hilton’s marble steps standing in front of a broken bottle of wine?
It was. As I left, the paper bag provided by the organizers came unglued and a nearly full bottle of Heartland Dolcetto Lagrein fell out. The bottle exploded on the steps and attracted gawkers from far and wide. Fortunately, a half bottle of Heartland Shiraz stayed in the bag.

You mean you could buy wine there?
No. If you stay until the end of such events, sometimes the distributors give away opened bottles because they don’t want to waste them.

Why did you end up with Heartland?
I spent the last half hour at the Palette tables. I like Australian wines and Palette owner John Gai has an excellent portfolio. Palette’s Stefan Fleischer, as he did at this event two years ago, guided me through some lovely wines, particulary the Shiraz and Viognier.

What else did you like?
I liked the media session with wine writer Jeremy Oliver, supported by the Australian Wine & Brandy Corporation and ASC Fine Wines - I’ll write a separate post about it. He encouraged us to cover the top of our glasses with our palms and shake them - this gives wine a few hours’ worth of aeration. Make sure you have tissues handy if you try this at home.

Best of all was meeting winemakers, winery owners, distributors, writers and, especially, consumers. I met many people that I previously knew only by email, including Jennifer Zhang and Jessie Xiao at Summergate and Xavier Tondusson at Bacchus. Good to match faces with email addresses!

By the way, if logistically possible, I think the Champagne distributors should be in Zeta bar next year. It’s a perfect fit. I would also have the event run later into the afternoon.

Any disappointments?
I would love to see more countries better represented. As usual, pickings were meager from China (only Grace Vineyard), Austria, Portugal, Canada and some other nations. Having said that, we get more choice every year in Beijing, so overall I was happy with the selection.

However, I was disappointed at the light turnout Saturday. The event offered hundreds of wines and a buffet for 230 kuai - what more could you ask for? Compare this to Torres’ Taste of the Nations event last weekend: it offered far fewer wines but attracted a lot of attendees, even though it was only marginally cheaper.

Spreading the Food & Wine Experience over two days - the trade show was on Friday - might help explain the attendance. Some trade people could not attend Friday and gave tickets to friends or customers who might otherwise have come on Saturday. Next year, the hotel might also want to pair its traditional magazine ads with more marketing via e-mail and word-of-mouth, which is the key way many people get information about events.

I talked to four distributors about attendance and all of them were unhappy, especially as they had to pay for table space and provide staff, wine and literature for the event. On the other hand, 18 distributors participated and most didn’t seem to do much to promote this event, at least if my inbox is any indication.

Which distributors attended?
Eight companies had the vast majority of the 182 wine tables: ASC (27), Aussino, Jointek and Summergate (25 each), Jebsen (24), and H&L, Palette and Torres (12 each). Other distributors were: DT Asia (6), Metro (4), Bacchus and Pernod Ricard (2 each) and Ao Hua, Beijing GLP, East Meets West, Longfellows, Moet Hennessey Diageo and TBC - The Beverage Company (1 each). Montrose was notably absent. The other 12 tables featured food, glassware, wine accessories, magazines, and bottled water.

This breakdown suggests the Hilton might want to drop the “food” from “food & wine” in the event title.

So, was it worth it?
Definitely. As mentioned, hundreds of wines were available for tasting. A Shiraz lover could compare and contrast what each distributor offers - dozens of wines in total. If you like French wines, you could have tasted to your heart’s content. For ten years, this has been one of the wine events of the year for consumers in Beijing. You just need to ensure you have a sturdy bag if you stay until the end.

Note: Get my free e-newsletter about nightlife and wine in Beijing by sending an email to beijingboyce@yahoo.com with “sign me up” in the subject line. For more China wine info, join the Facebook group Grape Wall of China.

(From Beijing Boyce XXII, first emailed on August 12, 2006)
Beijing Boyce XXII / August 12, 2006
Opening Shots, including The Big Easy, Berber N, and Mojito / First Impressions: Rui Fu / A Wine Glass of Any Other Shape / Wine Notes / Closing Shots, including Kitchen Confidential, Whisky and Bourbon Society, and a Big Thank You.
 
OPENING SHOTS
China Daily reports that Louisiana-themed The Big Easy will be chai’d on Sunday. Chaoyang Park authorities voided the bar’s 13-year lease, signed in 1998, in order to make space for a “peace plaza,” although they didn’t reveal whether this will be a government or commercial venture, states the newspaper. The creative layout, spirited music and Bloody Marys of The Big Easy will be missed. / Before losing its trio of capable bartenders earlier this year, Midnight packed in partiers and pumped out 50-kuai cocktails. Now, a signboard out front advertises 10-kuai drinks, including — and some might prefer this one with two paramedics, stomach pump and stretcher – Gin and Coke. / Browns, bursting at the seams last Saturday night, smartly anchored an ice-filled claw-footed bathtub of bottled beer just inside the door and thus siphoned off some of the thirsty patrons teeming at the bar. (Suggestion: Sell bottled water from the tub, too.) / Berber N, home of tasty kebabs before construction forced its closure on Sanlitun North earlier this year, has reopened across from Tongli Studios. Never have skewered chicken butts been more savory. / The last time I saw words such as “closed for maintenance work,” they were plastered on the door at First Cafe, which shortly thereafter pounded into coaster-size bits. That is, until Tuesday — and I hope it is coincidence — when I spotted them in neat longhand beside the entrance to Mojito, a fairly new place that has Beijing’s only draft Weihenstephaner. (Could a beer have a better name for the China market? The first half sounds delightfully Mandarin and the second evokes the Deutschland.) / Contrary to popular belief, Beijing does have table hockey, courtesy of W Sports Bar, where it is buried amid the ping pong table, dartboard, big-screen TV, pool table, art, grand piano, foosball table, etc. Is there anywhere else in town where you might simultaneously hear “Who’s serve?”, “bull’s eye!”, “I’ll have two beers, please”, “eight ball, corner pocket” and “this is simply too Dadaist for my taste,” all while someone chops out Mozart and a Formula 1 race shows? / Deep in Sanlitun South, a new bar is opening on the second floor of the building that Beer Mania calls home. With W Sports Bar, Q Bar and Yes Club nearby, a new party zone seems to be forming. / Speaking of Q Bar: one crane, four hours, and a dozen people. That’s about what it took to get a five-meter tree and some stone flower beds atop this bar’s increasingly green sixth-floor deck a few weeks ago. Fortunately, should the day come, it will only take a few seconds to get them back down. / With its latest Chicago blues act having returned stateside, icehouse, the bar part of RBL, now features a mix of local and foreign talent in the form of the Rhythm Dogs (Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays). Meanwhile, the employee turnstile spins on as Chef Dan Segal, who joined RBL this year after working at the former Louisiana restaurant in the Hilton, has left for Hong Kong. / Stone Boat continues with its funky live music line-up. The next three Fridays feature Enfants Terribles (electro-jazz, August 11), Muwen (traditional instruments, August 18) and Hanggai (”Mongol roots,” August 25), while Panjir Trio plays Saturdays all month. / Speaking of which, shortly after announcing the readers’ choices for its recent bar and club awards, that’s Beijing (TBJ) published its “editor’s picks.” Top spot of the year honors went to Stone Boat (good ambience and music, though the drinks and service are spotty), with honorable mentions to Area (was it on the ballot?) and Club Football (known primarily for its soccer pitches). Nothing against those places, but I don’t think collectively they had the impact of Browns. It exploded onto the bar scene this year, is busy beyond belief, appeals to most every age group, nationality and profession, influences and attracts as customers other bar owners and employees, offers decent food and a good draft beer selection, and, last but not least, won the readers’ vote. Love it or hate it, the place has made a mark. By the way, TBJ deserves kudos for organizing these awards. Cynics claim the magazine uses them to placate sponsors, but since each of the 20 categories has one winner and seven losers, more clients are likely to be upset than pleased. (And if you don’t believe it, then a band of TBJ staffers will roll up their gargantuan 250-page magazines and knock you about like a pinata. Or, maybe not.) / Fromage fans must be quick on the return key trigger when they get Beijing Cheese Society invites. Next week’s California-themed event at Palais sold out in a few hours. / Correction: Last issue, I wrote that 5:19 Bar and Grill was starting a darts league. In fact, it is one of the hosts of the Beijing International Darts League, which welcomes new teams and venues (email Chris “Elvis” Milward at commish@beijing-darts.com).

(From Beijing Boyce XXII, first emailed on August 12, 2006)

 
FIRST IMPRESSIONS / RUI FU
I toiled beyond the borders of China during the heydays of Neo Lounge and Vogue, the venues that shot Henry Li to the top of the Beijing club-owner charts a few years ago. Even so, I am intrigued by the history of those two places, about which so many friends rave ecstatic. I had high expectations for Li’s new club, Rui Fu. I wanted to like this joint, to understand the buzz created by my friends. And since it is named after and based in the abode of an early twentieth-century Chinese leader, I envisioned a spacious place that welded the modern to the past, had layers of character and, given Li’s bar experience, served good drinks.
 
One thing is true: the club is spacious. The ceilings are lofty, the lounge areas sprawling, the 1000 square meters ample. But any homage to the past is absent. Rui Fu is a virtual reality. It evokes the spirits of the plush karaoke, generic hotel casino, and modernized opium den, places where losing track of time, forgetting the complexities of every day life, and finding indulgences are givens. The main floor is divided into two large narrow rooms joined by an opening. From the near side’s perspective, tables and chairs, then lounge areas, flow until they meet that opening, beyond which figures appear as silhouettes. A row of toffee-colored octopi-like “chandeliers” crowned with donut-shaped lights crawls spans the ceiling, framed by a strip of soft lights along the trim and a neon glow from the rafters. And a room-length curtain flows in front of what is mostly likely a wall, but could be a hiding spot for a Wizard of Oz type, calmly keeping the lights just dim enough, the house music just restrained enough, so that things stay on simmer. It all seems a bit unreal, as though pulling a lever might dissolve this scene. I’ll end my comments on ambience here, for my time at Rui Fu was short, my quota for being pretentious has been met, and a proper evaluation will require several return trips.
 
As for Rui Fu’s bar, it is L-shaped and seats about 15 people (fans of reddish velvet framed by white piping look will love the chairs). My only cocktail was, in theory, a vodka martini with a twist: the bartender inexplicably squeezed a lemon into the shaker with the alcohol rather than, as is proper, placing a strip of peel in the glass as a final touch. (*This* was the time for a lever that would make something, namely my drink, disappear.) It might be best to stick to wine, beer or spirits, which are reasonably priced (a serving of Johnnie Walker Black is Y35).
 
Rui Fu, still to have its official opening, will rank among the year’s top bar stories, one with a high-falutin’ plot if the free English magazines are any indicator (that’s Beijing got in the first “see and be seen” reference, while Timeout used “glitterati” and expressed seeming displeasure that “some guests [at the soft launch] obviously missed the whole point of Rui Fu as they slobbed around in jeans, trainers and t-shirts, not quite reflecting the A-list celebrity hang out that Lee has envisaged”). Throw in the general consensus that serious guanxi is behind the club, that Henry Li is a brand name in and of himself, and that plenty of old-time party-goers will be looking to re-live the days of Vogue and Neo Lounge, and it’s going to get interesting.

(From Beijing Boyce XXII, first emailed on August 12, 2006)
 
A GLASS OF ANY OTHER SHAPE
My body has filtered its fair share of wine during the past decade, but it was only a few weeks ago at The Bookworm that I finally attended a Riedel tasting. Riedel is an Austrian company that makes expensive machine- and hand-made crystal wine glasses in dozens of shapes, each one designed for a particular grape variety. The glass for Merlot is different than the glass for Bordeaux, and so on. The idea is that the shape and volume of the glass determines how wine is aerated and where it falls on the tongue, and thus significantly influences how we smell and taste it.
 
A dozen of us began with a Chardonnay served, as you might guess, in a Riedel Chardonnay glass. A few sniffs and sips later, we poured the wine into one of those small glasses commonly used by restaurants and bars. The effect was striking. The bouquet seemed much weaker and the taste sour, as the smaller glass’ shape directed the wine away from the tip of our tongues, where our sense of sweetness lies. But what if rather than that obviously sub-par small glass we had used a different Riedel one? After trying the Sauvignon Blanc in its special vessel, we did just that, pouring the wine into the now-empty Chardonnay glass. The effect on the bouquet and taste was still evident, though less pronounced. We rounded out our testing with a Pinot Noir and a Cabernet Sauvignon.
 
I asked if budget-minded souls could get these results by using a cheap glass with a shape similar to that of the Riedel. The answer was that crystal: 1) makes it easier to check wine clarity and; 2) allows for more aeration, as under a microscope it is rougher than glass. What can I say? No one had a microscope handy. In the end, the tasting was both an education of the senses and sheer marketing genius, for we had plunked down RMB250 each for what was partly a sales pitch. While Riedel is nice, I’m sticking for now with the RMB20 wine glasses I bought at the former Riverside Cafe — they are cheap and big, and since my friends tend to break stuff after a few bottles of wine, I’d hate to have that rough crystal scratching my linoleum floor. For those who do wish to indulge, Riedel is distributed exclusively in China by ASC.

(From Beijing Boyce XXII, first emailed on August 12, 2006)
 
WINING ABOUT BEIJING
Moet Hennessy Diageo (MHD) provides Veuve Cliquot and Moet Chandon to our fair city, and, as I discovered at a Beijing This Month party last week, an assortment of other wines, including Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand), Cape Mentelle Sauvignon Semillon and Green Point Victoria Shiraz (Australia), Terrazas Reserva Malbec (Argentina), and Casa Lapostolle Cuvee Alexandre Chardonnay and Merlot (Chile). / Speaking of distribution, reader C.J. Dukes took me to Jiu Fu Sheng Ming Wine Shop (8779-6202), a spacious and well-stocked wine and spirits outlet complete with flagstones, seating, and fish tank. Owner John Zhang is transforming the space next door into a wine haven that will include a tasting area, small stage, and plenty of retail space. (I picked up a bottle of Wild Turkey and it passed my “didn’t freeze solid overnight in the freezer” test.) / Stefan Fleischer says the new kitchen at Palette Vino in Shunyi will operate from 5 to 10 PM and serve antipasti, cold cuts, freshly made pasta, cheese, and grilled meats and tuna. / Upcoming events at ASC Fine Wines include a New World and Old World tasting at The Bookworm (August 17, 7-8:30 PM, RMB250), a Gold Label cigar dinner at Garden of Delights (August 25, 7 PM, Y688, includes one cigar, Wolf Blass wines), a Trimbach winemaker dinner at The Capital Club (September 2, 7 PM, Y688) and a Banfi dinner at The St. Regis (September 9, 7 PM, Y788). / ASC has partnered with the UK-based Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) to provide classes in China. The “foundation” course is for beginners, in English, and focused on wine styles, service, and food-pairing techniques (September 28-31, 7-9 PM nightly, exam September 6, Y1488). / On August 26, China World Hotel’s Aria will pair a six-course meal by Chef Andrew McKee with seven wines that rate 95 or higher in Wine Spectator. Forget that Boracay trip fund: this dinner is Y3888. The wines (points in brackets): Krug Grande Reserve Champagne (95), 2002 Leeuwin Estate Chardonnay (96), 1996 Faiveley Corton Charlemagne Grand Cru (96), 1990 Gaja Barbaresco (100 points), 1983 Chateau Margaux (96 points), 1988 Chateau Latour (96 points) and 1998 Chateau D’yquem (95 points). / Jebsen is giving a “wine and picnic backpack” to customers that purchase a case of the company’s Chiaro wine. The backpack holds two bottles of wine (not included) and comes with plastic cups, utensils and plates.

(From Beijing Boyce XXII, first emailed on August 12, 2006)

Suzie Wong marked her birthday with a massive party last Saturday night that reportedly saw hundreds of people lining up at the door. / 5:19 Bar and Grill is starting a darts league next month and has all-you-can-drink Fridays (100 kuai until end of August) and all-you-can-drink draft on Wednesdays (50 kuai and up, depending on your poison). / First the Sanlitun beer mug was chai’d and now another nearby spot is on the dust heap of Beijing bar history. (See below: The Last of the First) / Wine-wise, Palette Vino in Shunyi has opened a kitchen to complement its wine tasting area; Summergate will host an Elderton wine tasting on August 1 at Bentos and Berries (50 kuai; reservations required); ASC Fine Wines will start its Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) courses later this summer and will hold a cocktail party featuring Freixenet sparkling wine on July 29 at Bed (60 kuai, includes two drinks); and The Cellar has memberships available in its wine club. / The Bookworm will soon launch a second branch - in Chengdu. / And after a short hiatus, the Beijing Cheese Society was back in action Monday, with a tasting of English artisanal cheeses at Le Palais. Speaking of which, Aria is holding The Pleasure of Cheese, with fromage from “the finest cheese capitals of the world,” August 1-25.

(From Beijing Boyce XXI, first emailed on July 27, 2006) 

Torres will hold a “European Lifestyle Party” at the Sunstyle Show Room on June 10 (7-10 PM), with Torres (Spain), Baron Philippe De Rothschild (France) and Zonin (Italy) wines, and family representatives from the three wineries (150 kuai). / Palette offers a “Refreshing Wines for Summer Party” on June 10 (7 PM), with six wines, at its Shunyi Store (100 kuai). / Summergate presents “California Sun, Fun & Wine” at Le Quai on June 13 (7-10 PM), with 11 wines from Delicato, and inery president Chris Delicato in town (100 kuai). / ASC Fine Wines is having a Chateau Clarke Wine Dinner, with winery GM Bertrand Otto attending, at the newly opened NHU on June 17 (688 kuai). / On June 24, Montrose will hold a Barossa Valley Estate (Australia) wine dinner at Alameda, which last month won that’s Beijing’s restaurant of the year award (7:30 PM; 598 kuai).

(From Beijing Boyce XVIII, first emailed on June 8, 2006)

On the wine watch, the next John Bull Pub “entry level” tasting will feature a Grace Vineyards rose, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon (Friday, April 7, 6 to 8 PM). Bottles are available on site. I’m hoping John Bull’s Frank Siegel soon teams up with Summergate for a Catai tasting. / Speaking of which, I hear — gasp! — Palette wines will finally have a web site. That puts pressure on Summergate to join the new millennium. Honestly, a company distributing wine and not having a web site is like someone writing a bars newsletter and not having a blog, except that the first case involves a business (and wine!). / As mentioned earlier, ASC Fine Wines celebrates its tenth anniversary this month and, according to a press release, employs 220 people, represents 800 wines and 80 wineries from 13 countries, and has gone from 22,000 bottles sold in 1996 to two million bottles last year. The company has a home delivery special featuring some of the most popular wineries it has represented over the past ten years. Get two bottles each of Beringer Stone Cellars Merlot (2003), Wolf Blass Yellow Label Cabernet Sauvignon (2003), Mascaron Par Ginestet Bordeaux Rouge AOC (2003), Santa Rita “120″ Sauvignon Blanc (2005), Louis Jodot Bourgogne Pinot Noir AOC (2003) and Ruffino Chianti Superiore IL LEO DOCG (2003), plus two Cabernet/Merlot and two Sangiovese/Riesling Riedel glasses, for 1500 kuai (regular price: 2586 kuai). For details, call 6418-1598 or go to www.asc-wines.com. / I’m going to have to delay once more the Canadian cheese tasting story and my rant, “You gotta fight, for your right, to fapiao!” Expect these, several wine tasting write-ups, Agent Red Wolf’s top-five Long Island list, and more in the next issue. / Until then, eat, drink and be merry. Cheers, BB.

(From Beijing Boyce XIV, first emailed on April 6, 2006)

Riverside Cafe has closed and will, it appears, become another Schindler’s. Good news for sausage and sauerkraut lovers, bad news for fans of the cafe and its excellent RMB20 wine glasses. (I should have stocked up. Anyone know where I can get more?) / Black Jack Garden (where I once coaxed a bartender into making me a Jagermeister martini. Ah, the memories) has also been uprooted. / The back loft in Le Quai (inside Gongti West) is a great place to spend a few hours while watching people ice fish, skate and play hockey on the river outside. Cozy couches and a good selection of drinks (RMB25-50; try the fruit cocktail), the only drawback is that sound really carries from the room below. / Until Chinese New Year, icehouse will only open for events, such as the Chopschticks comedy shows (next one: January 14). The owners have hired Guy Duarte as GM. The restaurant and lounge to which icehouse is attached are open as usual. / It started with Babyface a year ago and now Gongti West is becoming club central. Angel, Cargo (backed by Mix), Queen Club and the soon-to-open Coco Banana (backed by Banana) and Cutie Club are like peas in the pod there, with Vics and Mix around the corner. That hundred-meter strip could become the world’s biggest market for Chivas and green tea. Good. We must isolate such drinkers from society at large. / That gargantuan, half-finished and long-dormant building behind the Sanlitun beer mug is now host to a flurry of construction, the attendant noise intruding upon The Bookworm. There could be a double whammy on book and wireless lovers when drilling starts on the huge nearby Sanlitun South project. The Bookworm has a growing collection of new books and magazines for sale, a jewelry corner by Things of The Jing and 2006 seminars planned with Kent Kedl (The China Ready Company), Tim Clissold (Mr. China) and “Maggot Detective” Mark Benecke (his slide shows are not for the weak of stomach), among others. / Jenny Lou’s continues to expand its empire with a takeover of Eight over Eight’s space (Sanlitun North). (Note: I went there and four other stores in a vain search for a plunger - the staff at each spot were amused as I used body language to demonstrate unblocking a toilet. I tell you, there’s nothing worse than having a dozen full-bladdered house guests waiting for the maintenance guy to come and fix the loo.) / Thanks to BB readers Ro King, Agent Hidden Dragon and Agent Gold Monkey for donating money to help fund a heart operation for a two-month-old orphan named Tian Yue. (See last issue for the Scrooge-like details as to why an extra drive for cash was needed.) GE also came through with major support. Tian Yue had surgery on Boxing Day and so far, so good. / Thanks also to my boss, who seemed to be the only laoban in Beijing who didn’t require the staff to wear Christmas hats - as was required by workers at Shin Yeh, Le Quai, Starbuck’s, ad infinitum - the past few weeks. (I simply don’t look good in red with white fringe.) / Torres Wine has moved its office to near Green T. House (I couldn’t find the actual address since, like that of Summergate Wines, the Torres website is not working. C’mon guys, it’s almost 2006!). Torres will have a free tasting every Friday, 4-6 PM and until the end of December (short notice!) offers “buy two, get one free” on Baron Philippe de Rothschild Maipo Cabernet Sauvignon (RMB67), Signos Shiraz (RMB55) and Prosecco Angela Viano (RMB 85). / I went to Pinnacle Plaza with friends to buy a Christmas tree and popped into Palette Wines (good deal on Stickleback: RMB85 per bottle) and then into Jenny Lou’s where, lo and behold, they had over 500 different wines and a wine tasting to boot (it consisted of a “blind tasting” where one guessed if the wine was a Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon. Okay, I guessed right. Now what? Do I win something? No? I don’t get the concept). / Finally, I was busy apartment hunting and moving the past two weeks, so this issue is heavy on First Impressions and light on in-depth pieces. I’ll have more next time around.

(From Beijing Boyce VII, first emailed on December 29, 2005)

The annual Hilton wine fest a couple of weeks ago filled two floors of the hotel, with over 160 producers from Canada (How often is Canada listed first when it comes to wine? Go Canada!), Italy, Australia, the U.S., France, New Zealand, Chile, South Africa, Germany, Austria, and other grape-growing nations. I tasted 52 wines – these were sips, not full glasses, my friends – along with the buffet, for a measly RMB250 (US$30).

I also looked like a total poseur by writing tasting notes on my little black pad – unfortunately, I forgot my turtleneck sweater and Robert Parker book or I could have really stood out. Even so, when going through enough labels to make a deck of cards, you need a way to remember what was good, bad and ugly. It’s funny how my early notes use descriptions like “fruity,” “fresh,” “acidic” and “earthy,” while later ones are more, uh, creative: “hints of Sprite,” “honestly mundane,” “this grape’s got [sic] identity crisis” and “tastes like birch bark” (which I’m pretty sure I’ve never tasted). It’s also funny how you think a wine tastes like, say, birch bark, but then the distributor approaches and says it has “a delicate nose, a full body and a passionate finish” – and you suddenly realize it’s true! (And, in the case of this description, get turned on.) When the same expert points out the “notes of Saskatoon berries,” you swear you can taste them even if you’ve never eaten, seen or heard of this fruit, or know where Saskatoon is (it’s in Canada, which at least in this inaugural newsletter, ranks first in wine. Go Grape White North!).

Thanks to Stefan Fleischer of Palette, who explained his company’s wines and had us taste each of them in the proper order. (Stefan is opening a coffee shop in the art district – Dashanzi – more details to come). Beijing’s other four leading distributors were also there – ASC Fine Wines, Montrose, Torres and Summergate. By the way, to those who know that my cell phone and I parted ways that night, it was not lost, I repeat, it was not lost. Someone stole it. I clearly remember putting my phone down at 9:34 PM (26 minutes left to taste!) to exchange business cards and minutes later it was, so to speak, Gone with the Wine. Be careful fellow tasters. Cell phones disappear as quickly as that last glass of Bollinger’s.

(From Beijing Boyce I, first emailed on October 6, 2005)