Grape Wall Challenge Pits Bubblies against Each Other Just in Time for New Year's Eve

With one of the season's best times to pop bubbly  New Year's Eve just around the corner, the annual Grape Wall Challenge turned its attention to sparkling wine on December 13 at TRB Bites and asked 10 Chinese consumers to blind-taste a dozen offerings and pick their favorites.

The consumers/judges first tried their hand at opening some bottles, with the results ranging from a smooth pfft to a more cannon-esque pop. They then tried wines from five nations Australia, France, Germany, Italy, and South Africa and scored each as “love it," “like it," “dislike it," or “hate it." The wines were all inexpensive options, mostly priced below RMB 100, and handled by distributors with national reach in order to increase the odds that consumers will be able to find them.

In a tight race for first place, KWV Pearly Bay Celebration Rose from South Africa edged Menestrello Lambrusco Rosso from Italy. Pearly Bay is distributed by China Wines & Spirits and is RMB 98 at Mali Wine Cellar, says Alex Cros, and is also listed on yhd.com and amazon.cn. Menestrello is available for RMB 68 at Cheers shops in nine cities and at cheers-wines.com, says David Schaumann.

There also was a close contest for third place. Sire de Beaupre Demi-Sec from France RMB 69 in Carrefour, says Charles Carrard, with listings on jiuq.com and yhyyh.com nosed out Marquise Bernhard Semi-Dry from Germany, which is available for RMB 88 at Cheers.

Grape Wall Challenge puts a spotlight on consumers who are casual drinkers a typical judge is someone who enjoys wine once or twice per month and has never taken a class. After the tasting, Ma Huiqin, a professor at China Agricultural University and a leading wine marketing expert, led a talk with the consumers.

“The judges liked the sweeter wines in general,” said Ma. “They are consumers, and not all experienced in wine, but the ones they liked are nevertheless balanced.”

“Even as a wine professional, I found the Pearly Bay rose to be very nice. It was fruity and lovely, sweet and balanced, with a very attractive body,” she added.

This year's judges were Dong Fangyu, Jing Jing, Theodore Gao, He Da, Lei Dong, Colin Li, Li Cuiping, Li Qian, Wen Hao and, attending for a record sixth time in seven years, Miao Wong.

Grape Wall Challenge, first held in 2009, is a nonprofit event by wine blog Grape Wall of China. The venue sponsor was Ignace Lecleir of TRB Bites, who provided a room with superb views of The Forbidden City and handled everything from accepting deliveries to providing food for the judges. The wines were provided free by Cheers, China Wines & Spirits, East Meets West, French Wine Paradox, Montrose, Summergate and Torres/Everwines, with extra bottles given to the judges as gifts. For more details on this event, see Grape Wall blog.

Photos courtesy of Grape Wall of China, i.guim.co.uk

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So it's probably best to reverse the ranking and buy the 5th rank wine instead Wink