There are several things one associates with South Africa. The world cup for football fans, Pinotage for wine drinkers and Nelson Mandela for everyone else. Yet football goes better with beer than wine, and Pinotage doesn’t necessarily go well with Nelson Mandela. Created in 1925 by crossing Pinot Noir ... Read more »

As a wine bar manager and wine enthusiast who comes from a part of the world that produces nice wines nobody really knows about, I feel compelled to promote often overlooked wine regions. One of these is Hungary, which has been producing wine for 1,500 years. Its famous “bull ... Read more »

When buying wine in Beijing, most of people first think of French, Argentinean, Chilean, Italian, Spanish, Australian, New Zealand or even American vintages. But what about Greece and Sardinia, areas that have been producing amazing wines for thousands of years? What makes these wines so special is the fact that ... Read more »

“Buy on apples, sell on cheese,” a saying popular among winemakers, shows how food can influence the taste of wine. Biting into an apple before trying a wine can expose possible defects. Eating cheese, however, coats your taste buds, disguising any defects. The creamier the cheese, the better the wine ... Read more »

While there are many celebrations for the release of new wine vintages, the Beaujolais Nouveau is by far the biggest. In contrast to Central and Eastern Europe, where new wines are released on the feast day of St. Martin (Nov. 11), the patron saint of wine, the Beaujolais Nouveau is ... Read more »

Wine provides a very useful insight into climate change. The past 10 years have seen some of the warmest vintages on record, and this is reflected in the fact that areas best known for their Rieslings (a white grape that grows well in cooler climates) are now producing some very ... Read more »

Finding a good value, good quality wine on a restaurant wine list can be a challenge in Beijing. Import duties coupled with restaurant mark-ups mean that consumers pay a lot for fairly average wine. Here are some tips to find something good every time: 1) Find wine-friendly venues. Café Europa ... Read more »

The world’s most collectable wines, be they old and rare or new and highly sought after, tend to be collected and traded rather than consumed. That is, until Chinese investors started getting involved. China is now a key player in the wine auction market and is helping sustain healthy ... Read more »

The wine industry often makes a distinction between “fine wine” and “commercial wine” to separate those aiming to make the best possible wine from carefully grown grapes and those producing a standardized product in large volumes. China’s rapid growth as a wine producing nation has been firmly centered on ... Read more »

Oak barrels have been used in the production and storage of wine for more than two thousand years. The advantages of oak for making barrels are many: oak is relatively malleable, producing watertight containers that impart a range of desirable flavors. During the production process, the barrel-maker uses fire to ... Read more »

Prosecco, the sparkling dry Italian wine made from the grape of the same name, is the perfect mid-summer tipple. Fresh fruit aromas and a pleasant acidity are hallmarks of this high quality, northern Italian wine. Approximately 150 million bottles of prosecco are made every year. The very best varieties of ... Read more »

Sangria is a refreshing, fruity wine drink that originates in Spain and Portugal and is best shared with friends over tapas. This flavored wine, as well as vermouth and gluhwein, was developed as a solution to the fact that, before the invention of the cork, wine was preserved either by ... Read more »

Austria, the small landlocked European country with a population of 4 million, has given the world yodelling, the Sound of Music and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not to rest on its laurels, Austria also produces some of the world’s most exciting white wines. Two grapes are at the fore: Riesling and ... Read more »

In less than 30 years, New Zealand has gone from having little more than a few “hobby farm” wineries to being a respected producer of world-class wines. It’s a tribute to the amazing combination of climate, soil, human effort and innovation. At 45 degrees latitude, New Zealand has the ... Read more »

Head of the Class

In addition to the fantastic range of vintages available in Beijing, there are also some excellent opportunities to learn about what you’re drinking. These range from informal wine tasting clubs to formal wine courses resulting in qualifications. Gabe Suk of The Beijing Wine Club (gabriel ... Read more »

Learning about different grape varieties isn’t as daunting as you think. The pinot noir (black pinot) is the best known grape of the pinot family, which includes pinot blanc (white pinot) and pinot gris (grey pinot). The names simply indicate the color of the skins of these closely related ... Read more »

Australia is known for its rich red wines, with lashings of oak and fruit that come from the country’s warmer wine regions. What is not well known is that many of Australia’s best winemakers are heading south, looking for cooler vineyards to produce wines with more finesse and ... Read more »

Serving cheese with wine is a tricky issue. While there are some wonderful combinations, randomly matching different wines and cheeses will often disappoint. Here’s a few suggestions to help make your next post-dinner cheese plate or cheese and wine party a success: white wines are more versatile with cheese ... Read more »

It wasn’t long ago that “wine by the glass” in China often meant a choice of red or white of the cheapest quality. The good wines in more fancy restaurants were often only sold by the bottle. Now Beijing is host to an ever-expanding list of establishments with expansive ... Read more »

While the shape of the bottle doesn’t affect how it tastes, it can tell you something about its contents. The three most common bottle shapes are the “Bordeaux bottle” (tall and straight with high shoulders), the “Burgundy” bottle (sloping shoulders and a wider base) and the “Alsace” bottle (taller ... Read more »

Wine, unlike any other food and beverage, has the ability to taste of the place it comes from, or as the French say, to “express terroir.” This term sums up the fact that soil, site, aspect and micro-climate combine to give each vineyard a unique “fingerprint.” Tasting wines that express ... Read more »

Organic food has established a foothold in China, but little is known about the growing number of organic wines available in Beijing. “Organic” wine refer to wines that are made without the use of any chemical agents. Organic grape growing is increasingly common in wine regions that have relatively dry ... Read more »

I’d like to to dispel the old myth that red wine goes with red meat and white wine goes with white meat. Wines need to be paired with the sauces and dominant flavors of a dish, not the ingredients. Wines lower in tannin, such as whites, rosés, sparkling wine ... Read more »