Talking Pints: The Beijinger Pizza Cup Party, Chinese Wine Triumph, Chronmaster, SOS, Apothecary and Nova Preview

Here you are again, staring into the abyss-to-be and wondering what's going on in Beijing this weekend. Luckily we're here to let you know about everything from will.i.am DJing at Spark to Chronmaster dancing with pandas at Tango, and looking ahead to The Beijinger Pizza Cup Celebration Party at Kro's Nest Sanlitun on Monday night. We've also got news on Q Bar whiskey nights, RMB 2 chicken wings and Apothecary's implosion in Shanghai, plus the shock news that Chinese wines are now better than French wines. To find out the truth behind all these gentle lies, you better read on.

If you're out and about this weekend, look out for a Friday night of electro, dubstep and more at Tango as singer-songwriter Jordan Thomas Mitchell takes on his Chronmaster alter-ego. We hear he'll have dancing pandas supporting him. That's RMB 60 and starts at 10pm. Also on Friday, at Haze, Science of Sounds team up with Frank Costello (RMB 60, 9pm), Ya Dong and Donmy Liu play Mo Lounge (free, 10pm), and Shen Yue, ELVIS.T and Weng Weng play Lantern's "SEW Up" party (free, 10pm).

To Saturday, and the big event is the Booey Lehoo concert featuring the Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am and soul smoothie John Legend at the National Indoor Stadium. More details on that here, but if you don't make the show itself, get along to Spark for the after-party, where we're told will.i.am will be DJing. If you're keen on going to the after-party, be prepared for a line-up: all tickets will be sold on the door, at the gender-imbalanced prices of RMB 300 for guys and RMB 100 for girls.

Looking ahead to Monday, and The Beijinger Pizza Cup Celebration Party is on at Kro's Nest in Sanlitun. Kro's celebrating his restaurant's victory by giving a 12 percent discount on your bill all night - at the Sanlitun branch only - so get down there and join us to toast Beijing's pizza champion. Or if you feel bitter because your favorite didn't win, lodge a protest and visit them/order from them instead - just don't expect a discount.

Starting to plan New Year partying? As well as the usual suspects like Acupuncture's Genesis and Yen's Countdown, there's another big party this year going on up at 798's 751 Green Zone with the Nova New Year party. The headliner is Darren Emerson, who you might know for producing that song that Trainspotting made really, really famous, with support from Dave K, Huang Weiwei and former Acupuncture boys Terry Tu and X.L.F. Nova is the first party from FDC, who plan to put on a series of large-scale dance music events throughout 2012. We'll have more on these guys in the near future, but for now, get your tickets sorted - it's RMB 150 in advance or RMB 200 on the night - for more details, click here.

Look out for a new venue coming soon from the Westin Financial Street. We can't say any more right now, but it's going to be pretty exciting for those of you living on the westside.

As well as a sturdy selection of craft beers and ales, The Vineleaf has English ale Pedigree on tap. Scotland's BrewDog will also be available down there soon, but the shipment is still in transit.

Christmas is still a little over a week away, but if you're around Gulou look out for four days of Bavarian-themed celebrations at 12SQM. Starting December 21, they'll be doing ugly sweater contests, eggnog and mulled wine, and there'll be German music to keep the mood right.

Q Bar’s great new Wednesday whiskey nights give you a chance to explore the world of single malts, with a different dram at half the price every week and 45-50 percent discounts on whiskey cocktails. They’re also offering a range of hot winter drinks, with generous discounts during Monday to Thursday happy hours, 6-9pm.

Migas are still working on the new bar they're building inside the restaurant. This will function completely separately from the restaurant, with its own space and feel. No news on opening date, but possibly late this month.

Grinders has a new all-day RMB 2 chicken wing promotion going on every Tuesday. The only catch is that you have to order a minimum of ten - sounds reasonable enough to us ...

Touch in the Westin Chaoyang will close in late January, to be replaced in the spring by a new Japanese restaurant called Mai.

A bit of news from Shanghai relating to Beijing. Apothecary chiefs Leon Lee and Max Levy have split with their partners in the Shanghai branch of Apothecary. The Shanghai bar will now be renamed The Public. This ought to have no effect whatsoever on Apothecary in Beijing. Clearly a severe difference of opinion has pre-empted the split, but in this article from City Weekend Shanghai, it's all getting personal, with the Shanghai partners stating provocatively that "Rigid rules and stuffy atmosphere were never the intention, but rather an unfortunate by-product of a failed partnership" before going on with the following:

"Unfortunately, many of the quirks that helped to build the Beijing brand and reputation just did not fly in Shanghai. It’s no secret that the general public was annoyed and frustrated. We’ve read the reviews. We’ve heard the comments. We understand your frustrations. And we agree completely. And yes, we will finally have Coca Cola. Yes, you can sit before the rest of your party arrives. No, you don’t have to sit at the bar."

Just to keep things fair, you can read Leon's initial press release on the split here. For the moment, I think this story is a single anecdote rather than part of a bigger trend, but does it say something when Shanghai is calling Beijing out for "rigid rules and stuffy atmosphere"?

And finally, news just in: Chinese wines have been declared better than French wines! At least, that's what we can take from the results of Beijing Boyce's Ningxia versus Bordeaux wine tasting, which was held at Beijing's Zun Club yesterday. Ten judges (five Chinese, five French) tasted ten wines (five Ningxia, five Bordeaux) and ranked them from first to tenth place. And in the top four places: Ningxia! Outright winner was Grace Vineyard's Chairman’s Reserve 2009, which retails at RMB 488. Boyce's Grape Wall of China blog has all the details here, and we'll have a separate post on this soon, but for now, we'll leave you with Mr. Boyce's summary: "The key result is to show, again, that some Chinese wines are able to compete on an international level. These wineries represent a small share of the market but they do show the potential for making good wine in China. For those who ask, 'Can China make good wine?,' the answer is yes."

Right, that's that. Away with you and get yourself a bottle of Chairman's Reserve - it is Thursday after all.