Edward has recently posted in-depth articles on Catavino and Enobytes:

DBR Lafite, Bodegas Torres and The Future of Wine in China

‘Nava Valley’: The Fate of American Wines in China

The Enobytes piece was also aired on Wine Business.com (where Enobytes is a Featured Blog)

Look out also for Edward’s and Fongyee’s recent ‘Sinophile’ column in The World of Fine Wine Issue 24: ‘How Large is a Chinese Grand Cru?’

There’s also a fascinating article by Jamie Goode in the same issue entitled ‘Help or Hype? Fine Wine on the Internet’. Goode praises some aspects of Adegga, the on-line community and tasting note resource of which we at Dragon Phoenix are also big fans!

As the temperature rises in Beijing, wine storage and service become a pressing issue! Too warm a serving temperature can destroy the aromas of most wines and too cold a temperature can mute aromas, especially in more complex bottles. For storage before service, a wine cabinet is essential and for long-term storage a unit with humidity as well as temperature control is advisable (plus a storage area without strong light or vibration).

With the official ‘air-con’ temperature regulated at 26 degrees Celsius, this ‘room temperature’ proves too warm for serving most bottles. Generally speaking, big-bodied red wines should be served at around 18-20 Celsius, but higher than that and the alcohol becomes too obvious, ruining the wine’s bouquet.

In fact, in these strenuously hot days, most red wines benefit from a quick chill in the fridge before service. This especially applies to lighter-bodied reds with less tannic structure (e.g. Beaujolais, most Pinot Noirs, joven Tempranillo, lighter Loire Cabernet Francs etc.).

Whites require more planning ahead. Try to avoid putting them in the freezer because this may precipitate ‘wine diamonds’ (aka tartrate crystals) which, although perfectly harmless, can look odd to some drinkers (they occur when a wine has not been ‘cold stabilized’). A few hours in the fridge or a plunge in an ice-bucket is fine.

If you need to cool many bottles for a party, use a large plastic tub or your bathtub. Just remember to put the bottles in first – not the ice! It is not especially easy trying to insert chunky wine bottles into solid or even partially melting ice.

Sparkling wines can be served between 6-8 Celsius, refreshing whites (made from grapes like Sauvignon Blanc) at 9-10 Celsius; but oaked, full-bodied whites (e.g. most Californian Chardonnay) can be served as warm as 14 Celsius.

Basically, the higher quality the white the higher the service temperature (up to about 14-15 degrees) it can withstand. This even applies to top quality Champagnes, especially those rich in Pinot Noir (never serve these too cold! The bottle gets finished before the wine has even had a chance to express itself…).

Finally, let’s not forget rose (either still or sparkling). Robust rose wines (e.g. Spanish ones from Garnacha or some southern French roses) do not need to be too cold. But ‘vin de gris’ and some roses made by the ’saignee’ method are relatively delicate and will benefit from light chilling.

2007 Marques de Montemor Branco 143RMB
(Available from East Meets West. Contact: Wendy Jiang, Email: wendy@emw-wines.com)

This appealing and very drinkable white wine from Quinta da Plansel is made from some very unusual grape varieties native to southern Portugal.

Their names are a mouthful, so don’t bother to memorize them! Just kick back, relax and enjoy their aromatic, fresh white fruits and refreshing acidity. This wine is perfect to drink on its own on a hot summer’s day or can go equally well with a light summer-time salad or seafood dish.

2006 Montes Limited Selection Cabernet Sauvignon/Carmenère 132RMB (on offer)
This wine is right now on offer from the Wine Bank, a small retail store (TYG Building B1 #21, on 3rd Ring east, right next to Brassiere Flo).  Also available from Top Cellar and many supermarkets.

This mix of Cabernet Sauvignon (70%) and Carmenère (30%) blends two of Chile’s most successful black grapes. The wine has a very typical blackcurrant sweet fruit fragrance blended with spicy and vanilla oak aromas (plus a touch of Carmenère’s herbaceous character). The smooth and rich mouth-feel accompanied by ripe tannins and balanced high alcohol makes this lovely to drink on its own or to enjoy with strongly flavoured meat dishes – try with black pepper steak!

It’s already mid-June. Beijing has been awash these past few weeks and months with myriad tastings - before the summer heat puts paid to most events - and our blogging backlog is already looking hefty…

In the meantime Edward has just written a new article for Catavino (DBR Lafite, Bodegas Torres and The Future of Wine in China) and is due to write about American wines in the Chinese market(s) on Enobytes. He also has his head in the manuscript of a book due for Cambridge University Press in mid-August.

But as we rack up hours of WSET teaching, we thought a note at least informing readers of what’s to come on the Dragon Phoenix blog was more than a little overdue.

Thus, once we’ve completed our next ‘Sinophile’ column for The World of Fine Wine, here’s a taste of what we plan for future posts:

Featured Tasting: Highlights from Richards Walfords trade tasting (UK)

Featured Tasting: Heitz Cellars, Napa

Featured Tasting: Clos du Val, Napa

Featured Tasting: Silverado, Napa

Featured Tasting: Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, Napa

Featured Tasting: Cakebread Cellars, Napa

Bollinger NV Rose: Beijing Launch

Featured Tasting: Springfield Estate, Robertson

Bordeaux 2005: Wines of Bernard Magrez

China Agricultural University: Fongyee’s tasting seminar

Raffles Beijing: Paul Jaboulet Aine dinner

China World: Chateau Palmer Seminar

… plus plenty of other features including two on Champagne (Roederer and growers Tarlant & R. Geoffroy), tastings with Angove’s, Burklin-Wolf, Vignobles Brunier, Portugal’s Plansel, Hewitson and the wines of Jean-Claude Boisset and Bouchard Aine.

There might even be the odd surprise feature too.

Finally, we will also publish a wider review of the Black Sesame cooking school food-and-wine matching exercise in which we took part (pictured below), with wines from The Wine Republic, as publicized in The New York Times (click here for full article) under the pen of Black Sesame owner Jen Lin-Liu.

Don’t Like Oak?
Not everyone likes oak. So, if you don’t enjoy the woody, savoury and spicy qualities of oak, select ‘unoaked’ or ‘unwooded’ wine (these terms now appear on some New World Chardonnays, for example). But if you want to be safe, try the following: New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or Sancerre, most Chablis, most types of Riesling (France, Germany, Austria and Australia generally avoid oak for this variety) or aromatic Alsace white wines (e.g. Gewurztraminer, Riesling, Muscat etc.). Some unoaked red wines include: most Beaujolais (made from the Gamay grape), most Dolcetto and Valpolicella (from Italy) and some Spanish reds marked ‘Joven’ (these will only have a little oak, if any).

2007 Santa Cristina “Cipresseto” Rose IGT 189RMB
Available from Summergate. Contact 010 6562 1800 or www.summergate.com
This lovely rosé is part of the Santa Cristina range from the Italian family firm of Antinori. This is no sickly-sweet candied-berry rosé but one with serious savoury flavours and balance (made from a mix of traditional Tuscan varieties such as Sangiovese). A perfect companion for a summer’s day, this wine is bone dry, refreshing and lively with a delicate redcurrant and strawberry fragrance. The mouth-watering acidity is well-balanced with the fruit and the result is a very food-friendly wine that would go with dishes ranging from salads and patés to fish and chicken as well as lighter Chinese dishes such as shitake mushroom braised with greens or crispy-skinned chicken.

2006 Bourgogne Chardonnay Signature, Maison Champy 332RMB
Available from The Wine Republic. Contact email: orders@thewinerepublic.com or Tel: (010) 5869 7050
An elegant white Burgundy provides a refreshing but sophisticated drink for warm summer days. Maison Champy is one of several negociants to have really upped quality since the late 1990s. This is elegantly made with bright citrus fruit, delicate oak, lifting acidity and a good overall structure. Perfect with a smoked salmon or chicken salad or just by itself. An excellent wine to take as a gift (preferably pre-chilled!) to dinner parties and suitable for lighter cold starters at the Chinese banquet table.

22nd April 2009

In the opulent surroundings of Beijing’s China Club, Links China welcomed Michael Silacci, winemaker at Opus One, and Roger Asleson, Opus One’s Director of Public Relations, to host a lunch and tasting with a small group of local media and wine professionals.

The prestige of Opus One requires little introduction. But it is not often that wine lovers have the opportunity to separate the myth-making side of this famous venture from the actual quality of the wines.

We tasted a single bottle of 1992 Opus a few years ago (click here for full tasting note) which was very impressive indeed.

On the evidence of this tasting – where several bottles of different vintages were opened and some wines were also served from magnum – Opus One fully deserves the accolades and iconic status it has attained.

Here’s what we tasted (click on links for full tasting notes) with the menu to follow, plus some further notes on Silacci’s and Asleson’s personal insights:

Opus One, Oakville, Napa 2005

Opus One, Oakville, Napa 2001

Opus One, Oakville, Napa 1995

Opus One, Oakville, Napa 1986

These were served with the following menu, a mixture of Sichuan, Shanghai-ese and southern Chinese dishes:

Cold dishes:

Shredded cucumber, jellyfish and wood fungus

Crystal pork elbow

Bang bang ji (chicken in chilli sesame sauce with hua jiao - see below)

Marinated kao fu (gluten)

Followed by:

Crystal prawns

Fried fillet of grouper in black bean sauce

Braised bamboo pith roll with julienned vegetables

Tea-smoked duck

Fried crispy noodles with shredded beef and mushroom

Sweetened almond cream

Some of the thinking behind this menu probably came from an understandable concern that the Sichuan dishes for which The China Club is well-known would be too robust for the wines, especially, with that cuisine’s use of hua jiao (translated as ‘Sichuan peppercorns’, these numbing and fragrant pods actually come from the prickly ash tree).

But some of the dishes – especially the crystal prawns – were too light and had the wrong flavour profile and textures for the likes of Opus One (or any Cabernet-blend).

That said, as Roger Asleson pointed out, there were two very good food-and-wine matching combinations. One real hit was the tea-smoked duck, a Sichuan classic, with the 2005 Opus: where the 05’s bright fruit and pronounced tannic structure stood up very well to what is a strongly flavoured, relatively rich dish.

Another excellent match with the older vintages of Opus, especially the 1986, was the noodles with mushroom and shredded beef. China has an abundance of amazing mushrooms which may well suit older red wines in various styles or aromatic red grapes such as Pinot Noir or Nebbiolo.

In between courses, Michael Silacci explained how on his first vintage as winemaker (back in 2001) he insisted on harvesting at night – not initially a popular move, but now standard practice at Opus.

This not only ensures harvesting grapes at cool temperatures – where unwanted initial fermentation is unlikely to occur – but is designed to capture an optimal balance between water, sugar concentration and acidity (as the grapes expand again following their diurnal contraction under the sun).

Roger Asleson, meanwhile, spoke not only about the collaboration between Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild that made Opus One possible, but about the staying power of this wine during the global economic slowdown.

Various markets in Asia are holding strong – Japan especially – with the prospects for Hong Kong and mainland China still looking good. No less a wine could continue to command such a following.

All of the wines were characterized by finesse, impressive structure and obvious ageing capability. They are a far cry from the Napa Cabernets that elevate extraction over elegance (our recent trip to Napa in February was an education in how many different styles of Cabernet blends exist in the region).

Our thanks to Opus One and the Links China team for this fantastic tasting and lunch.

Watch this space for further posts on Napa wines.

Previous posts on Napa (and Sonoma) include visits at:

Robert Mondavi

Franciscan Estate

Grgich Hills Estate

Limerick Lane

Simi

Clos du Bois

2007 Josmeyer Pinot Blanc ‘Mise du Printemps’, Alsace, France (264RMB)

(East Meets West Beijing contact: Wendy Jiang, Email: wendy@emw-wines.com)

Pinot Blanc is a grape variety that is often forgotten about. Its cousins Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris are certainly much more famous! In Alsace, Pinot Blanc is mainly used for sparkling wine production or everyday still wines. But Josmeyer is a top producer responsible for this strong example of a still Pinot Blanc. Medium gold in colour, the nose has light melon and pear fruit with a hint of gingerbread spice. The palate has lifting medium acidity, lovely fruit and surprisingly good length. This wine is very food-friendly, but should not go with very spicy dishes. Try xiaolongbao or other ‘light’ dumplings (lighter Beijing jiaozi fillings should work too).

2005 Grosset ‘Gaia’, Clare Valley, Australia (707RMB)

(Torres China contact: Sophie Sun sophie@torres.com.cn)

Grosset is one of Australia’s most renowned producers and a pioneer for quality in South Australia’s Clare Valley. From the Gaia Vineyard, this wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (75%), Cabernet Franc (20%) and a tiny bit of Merlot (5%). Dark purple to black in colour, the nose has multiple black fruits (blackcurrant, blackberry, black cherry, black plum) with complex oak aromas. The palate is softer than expected with medium fine tannins, lovely acidity, considerable fruit and great length. You can approach this wine now, but it will be even better with time! Should be fantastic with red-cooked (hong shao) meat dishes in most forms.

Note: we were also lucky to taste the 1994 Grosset ‘Gaia’ not so long ago and were very impressed (for a tasting note see our blog: http://www.longfengwines.com/wine/?p=60 )

8th February 2009

After an entertaining tasting at Franciscan Estate and a leisurely lunch, I rolled up at the Robert Mondavi Winery - only a stone’s throw from Franciscan - to meet Senior Wine Educator Dana Andrus.

A veteran of the Mondavi team, Andrus explained the original vision of Robert Mondavi and the formation of the Oakville estate.

He also clarified the current relationship between Opus One and the Robert Mondavi Winery - now both owned by Constellation - which are distributed through different channels; with Genevieve Janssens, former winemaker at Opus One, now serving as Director of Winemaking at Robert Mondavi alone.

I saw plenty of largely Cabernet Sauvignon vines beautifully tended and fitted to drip-irrigation (as in the above photo).

We then turned to the wine-making side. Among the masses of impressive and immaculate equipment, perhaps the Mondavi barrel room is the greatest attraction (see below).

Just as I was admiring these tranquil surroundings, jets of intense mist were suddenly sprayed all over the cellar (in order to maintain reasonable humidity).

There was also a state-of-the-art bottling line, not only used for the Mondavi wines but by other properties too.

All very impressive, but how were the wines?

I have to admit that as a Brit I find it hard to fall in love with US marketing-speak and had wondered just how good the Mondavi wines might be.

Thankfully, Andrus had nothing to peddle but his considerable knowledge of Napa and a genuine desire to share fine wine.

We sat down to a tasting of the following:

Robert Mondavi Fumé Blanc, Napa 2007

Robert Mondavi Fumé Blanc Reserve, Napa 2006

Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir Reserve, Carneros, Napa 2006

Robert Mondavi Merlot, Napa 2005

Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa 2006

Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville (Napa Valley) 2005

Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Napa 2005

Robert Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve, Napa 1999

All were made extremely well and more than that had elegance, finesse and something above varietal purity.

Andrus explained how the Mondavi Fume Blanc have changed stylistically over the years (with less oak and riper Sauvignon fruit coming to prominence).  I especially liked the Carneros Reserve Pinot and for sheer value the Napa and Oakville basic Cabernets.

However, the Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve wines - compared with what is asked for some Napa Cabernets - are still, in relative terms, very good indeed for their asking price (see individual notes) and I was impressed that some older vintages were similarly priced to the current release (even given vintage variation).

8th February 2009

It was on a wet, slightly windy and foggy morning that I headed up from Yountville to Oakville and the home of Franciscan Estate.

If anyone wants to get a sense of what Napa fog can do, the below photo should give a decent impression.

Such fogs have a cooling effect, but usually disperse, especially during the warmer months, before moisture can become a problem for the vines.

Napa’s need of rain also made me think about grateful vine growers (although it would take a lot more than one or two downpours to make a significant difference).

In turning into Franciscan, I had thought I would have an easy ride tasting my way through the winery’s portfolio. But Senior Wine Educator Greg Glorio had a blind-tasting in store for me from the Icon Estates entire range (Franciscan is now part of Constellation).

Personally, I was happy for the opportunity to blind-taste (long gone are my Cambridge days of intensive blind-tasting training, although I do periodically blind-taste for Chinese magazines). There was also a warm fire.

Here’s what we tasted:

Kim Crawford Pinot Gris, Marlborough 2007

Estancia Pinot Gris, Central Coast, California 2007

Franciscan Estate Merlot, Napa Valley 2005

Mount Veeder Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 2005

Tintara Shiraz, McLaren Vale 2005

Most of these wines were varietally distinctive, although the Tintara Shiraz - lovely though it was - did not have as much blueberry fruit as Shiraz usually shows (it turned out there’s a significant amount of Petit Verdot in that wine).

All in all, this was a very fun tasting and the Franciscan and Mount Veeder wines were competently made.