Nickname: 大哥

Review: First, Great Wall wine tastes like Mad Dog 20/20, but with a lower alchohol content. I'll have to try this Shangrila wine, but I'm skeptical since I have yet to try a decent Chinese wine in over a year here. I think there's not necessarily much room for growth in the Chinese domestic wine market, because baijiu has such a long history here -- it will be hard to convince people to switch. Chinese enjoy chugging their alchohol (ganbei!) whether it be baijiu or beer in small glasses. Switching to sipping on wine will be a hard sell, especially when it's so much more expensive and less potent than baijiu. Sojiu (Korean liquor around 15-20% alcohol) has a much better chance of catching on.

Date reviewed: Oct 9, 2006 5:48 PM

Nickname: Claire

Review: I recently spent a week in Shanxi, hosted by government and business authorities. Grace vineyard was an unexcepted but very pleasant site. With time, the region may produce good wine. For now, based on the wines I had the opportunity to try (not the $80 dollar / bottle I assume) there is no way to compare with a Bordeaux (or it would have to be a pretty bad one).

Date reviewed: Oct 7, 2006 4:00 PM

Nickname: Mike Miles

Review: Chinese wines have come a LONG way in the last decade. There is a very good Cabernet named "Shangrila" that goes for about $US12. The label has Shangrila in Chinese and "Vintopia Cabernet" in English. It is well worth trying and speaks well for the future of high quality wine production in China. The difficulty will be consistency of quality across the board. But current production, particularly the Vintopia Cabernet (Shangrila), is GREAT!!!

Date reviewed: Oct 4, 2006 5:02 PM

Nickname: galexco

Review: I've had a range of Chinese wines, some better than others. I live in Tianjin and Dynasty Wine seems to have taken over here. Maybe I'm paranoid but with acid rain so prevalent how do they protect the grapes? I know they grow wine in Tainjin and the pollution is bad but in Shanxi it sounds like it is even worse with the coal industry as a neighbor.

Date reviewed: Oct 3, 2006 2:48 PM

Nickname: jason

Review: I hope you are joking. Chinese wine is appalling. I think in the entire three years I've been in China, I've found one good brand of Chinese wine, which isn't even availabe in Beijing!

Date reviewed: Oct 3, 2006 5:05 AM

Nickname: Steve

Review: I live in Beijing and regularly drink several very good, low-cost Chinese wines, from Great Wall, Dragon Seal, and other local brands. So I submit there are already some good wines here!

Date reviewed: Sep 30, 2006 7:07 AM

Nickname: Peter

Review: For several years Chinese friends have brought me from China bottles of an excellent, relatively low alcohol, Cabernet. It is called Greatwall and made by the China National Cereals, Oils and Foodstuffs Corp. In Beijing it is sold by - are you ready? Wal-Mart. I was surprised that your article did not make any reference to it.

Date reviewed: Sep 30, 2006 12:00 AM