Forgive me for writing about the joys of eating, drinking and merry-making at a time when so many are suffering from yesterday’s earthquake in Sichuan Province. Rather, let me suggest this be an opportunity to remember the joys of ingesting and imbibing, and to count your blessings.

And there are blessings a-plenty to be counted these days.

Not least of these is the surge in appreciation, knowledge and availability as far as wine in this little city here pours. When an anonymous Beijing-based billionaire paid half a million USD for 27 bottles of Romanee-Conti, Burgundy's most expensive red wine, through auctioneer Antique Wine Co. in London, he merely alerted the world beyond to the growing variety of varietals to which we already have access.

He also demonstrated wine's evolving cache in China. Or, as Carson Chan, Bonhams's (auction house) Hong Kong-based managing director, bluntly put it: "The Chinese will be a force to reckon with."

That Beijing will host several food-and-wine tasting events of note in the next few weeks comes as no surprise. ASC Wines will host a first-of-its kind (and price!) gala dinner with famed wine guru Robert Parker (the originator of the 100-point rating system and “the world’s most influential wine critic,” so says the New York Times). Sequoia’s weekly tasting will take a tour through Languedoc reds. Med’s Ladies’ Night has doubled its frequency to become a biweekly food-and-tipple extravaganza. Beijing Boyce has further listed the “Road to Beijing” wine dinner and charity auction, along with an Alain Chabanon-hosted wine dinner at Blu Lobster.

I’m not merely excited that thought is increasingly invested into considering the flavor symbiosis of what one swigs and what one chews. I also appreciate the growing assortment of dining and drinking establishments now available. We’re not limited to the elite and cosmopolitan on the one hand, and the street-side and provincial on the other. Clearly, there’s a gray area of all gradients (red, rosé, sparkling, white...) in between.

As Eric Asimov, “The Pour” columnist for the New York Times, pointed out last week, “most people in the wine trade understand that consumers have any number of reasons for their buying decisions. Some are reassured by easy-to-understand labels with friendly animals. Others want only naturally produced wines or bottles with a modest carbon footprint. Some are status-seekers and score-chasers, while others are contrarians, or only drink red wine.”

We here in Beijing know full well that there needs to be multiple systems for the millions of diners at hand. For the expanding list of restaurants and cellars in our hometown, let us be grateful and raise a toast.