Annual Grape Wall Challenge Gives You A Perfect Starter List for Chinese Wines to Try
Ask a group of friends to recommend the best Peking duck, burger or craft beer and you will likely have a lively debate on your hands.
But wine? While some have strong opinions, many find the topic complicated and intimidating.
The annual Grape Wall Challenge aims to help change that. First held in 2009, the GWC stars casual wine consumers – those who occasionally drink but are not in the beverage trade – as judges.
They taste wines blind, score each as "love it," "like it," "dislike it" or "hate it," and discuss their picks with Ma Huiqin, a marketing expert and professor at China Agricultural University. Then they tuck into snacks and retry favorite bottles.
Pop-Up Beijing, a Sanlitun South home decor shop with two wine bars, recently hosted the eighth GWC.
This year's wine theme was local producers, stretching from Xinjiang to Shandong, with good reputations and national distributors. Twelve judges, employed in fields as diverse as education, marketing, IT and catering, spent an hour swirling, sniffing, sipping and eventually scoring sixteen wines.
"Overall, the judges liked the wines. Their favorites more or less reflected what professionals would pick," said Ma. "They like something fruitier and most of the wines this year tended to be very juicy."
The wines were served in four flights: white and red under RMB 165 and white and red from RMB 166 to RMB 320.
Cui Yunan, who does marketing in the food sector, said the tasting showed each wine's uniqueness.
"I was kind of a Merlot person, I never go wrong when buying it for friends, as it's sweet and fruity," she said. "But I could taste the slight differences with each wine."
She was surprised at wines from her home region of Ningxia. "I know we have great weather for grapes, and I know we can make good wine, but I didn't know we can make it that good!" she said. "It was beyond my expectations."
Her favorite was a red blend from Kanaan: "It smells good and fresh, it's soft, it's not too sweet or sour."
Pop-Up co-owner Vito Zhang said he had little experience with Chinese wines beyond those from Dynasty and Changyu. While he said the GWC wines were better, he did see room for improvement.
"My favorite was the [Bordeaux-style] Deep Blue from Grace Vineyard," he said.
The judges generally liked all the white wines although no brand stood out as the clear winner. For wines priced to RMB165, Kanaan Riesling from Ningxia (RMB 150, Summergate) scored slightly higher while Grace Vineyard Tasya's Reserve Chardonnay from Shanxi (RMB 308, ASC) took that honor for the pricier flight.
Wines in the less expensive flight of reds turned out to be highly divisive. On one hand, they received more "hate it" votes than all other flights combined. On the other, all four wines received at least one "love it" vote, thus showing the diversity of tastes among the judges. Silver Heights 'Last Warrior' Red Blend from Ningxia (RMB 158, Torres) came out the clear winner, with several citing a peppery character.
The more expensive flight was the favorite. Four of six wines were overwhelmingly loved / liked. Grace Vineyard 'Deep Blue' Cabernet blend from Shanxi (RMB 308, ASC) emerged as the highest-scoring wine of the night. One judge called it "refined" and others cited its soft fruity character.
Tiansai 'Selection' Cabernet-Shiraz from Xinjiang (RMB 328, East Meets West), noted for its ripe red fruit, as well as Kanaan 'Pretty Pony' Cabernet-Merlot from Ningxia (RMB 295, Summergate) and Silver Heights 'Family Reserve from Ningxia (RMB 308, Torres) were also widely liked.
Ma said that red wines dominate China's market, with more than an 80 percent share, and that can affect perceptions.
"Consumers definitely have more experience and confidence with red wine," she says. She added that drinking cold liquids, especially in the winter, is not common for many consumers.
Several of the judges also noted the relatively high prices of the Chinese wines, a common criticism in a market with an increasingly rich range of inexpensive imported wines. Even so, like Cui, they tended to be surprised by the quality of these wines and that bodes well for the future.
GWC doesn't claim to reveal general truths about Chinese consumers but to give a snapshot of what a given group thinks. In short, it aims to discover consumer preferences, to give people confidence in expressing their opinions about wine, and to make sure everyone has fun. The full lineup of wines:
Flight 1: White wines up to RMB 165
Chateau Nine Peaks (九顶) Chardonnay 2015, Shandong
Distributed by East Meets West, RMB 150
Kanaan (迦南) Riesling 2014, Ningxia
Distributed by Summergate / Pudao, RMB 150
Silver Heights (银色高地) "Last Warrior" Chardonnay, Riesling & Sauvignon Blanc 2015, Ningxia
Distributed by Torres / Everwines, rmb158
Flight 2: White wines RMB 166-330
Grace Vineyard (怡园) "Tasya's Reserve" Chardonnay 2015, Shanxi
Distributed by ASC, RMB 199
Silver Heights ( 银色高地) "Family Reserve" Chardonnay 2014, Ningxia
Distributed by Torres / Everwines, RMB 308
Tiansai (天塞) "Reserve" Chardonnay 2015, Xinjiang
Distributed by East Meets West, RMB 268
Flight 3: Red wines up to RMB 165
Hansen ( 汉森) Sauvignon 2015, Ningxia
Distributed by Paradox, RMB 150
Hansen ( 汉森) Cabernet Gernischt 2015, Ningxia
Distributed by Paradox, RMB 150
Kanaan (迦南) "Wild Pony" Cabernet Saugignon-Merlot-Cabernet Gernischt 2014, Ningxia
Distributed by Summergate / Pudao, RMB 150
Silver Heights ( 银色高地) "Last Warrior" Cabernet-Merlot 2014, Ningxia
Distributed by Torres / Everwines, RMB 158
Flight 4: Red wines RMB 166-330
Chateau Nine Peaks (九顶) "Reserve" Cabernet Sauvignon 2013, Shandong
Distributed by East Meets West, RMB 240
Grace Vineyard (怡园) "Deep Blue" Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot-Cabernet France 2012, Shanxi
Distributed by ASC, RMB 306
Kanaan (迦南) "Pretty Pony" Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot 2013, Ningxia
Distributed by Summergate / Pudao, RMB 295
Legacy Peak (留世) Cabernet Sauvignon 2013, Ningxia
Distributed by East Meets West, RMB 320
Silver Heights ( 银色高地) "Family Reserve" Cabernt Sauvignon-Merlot 2014, Ningxia
Distributed by Torres / Everwines, RMB 308
Tiansai (天塞) "Selection" Cabernet Sauvignon-Shiraz 2013, Xinjiang
Distributed by East Meets West, RMB 328
Note: GWC is a non-profit initiative by Grape Wall of China website. Pop-Up Beijing provided space for GWC8 as well as glassware, spittoons and other key materials, Ma Huiqin led the discussion, ASC, East Meets West, Paradox, Torres and Summergate donated wines, and Jim Boyce handled general logistics.
Images courtesy of Grape Wall of China
