Chinese Wine Ceremony

From CRIEnglish.com

A Chinese traditional "wine ceremony" was held on Sunday at Southwest University of southwestern China's Chongqing municipality to remind people of the country's traditional culture at the time of Christmas.



Students wearing Han-style clothes held a traditional Chinese "wine ceremony" at Southwest University in Chongqing on Sunday, December 23, 2007. [Photo: Chongqing Evening News]

Wearing Han-style clothes, more than 20 students, respectively playing the "hosts" and "guests", revived the wine ceremony in front of the Confucius sculpture in the university, local Chongqing Evening News reported.

Taking two bows to "hosts" with cups held to their waists, the "guests" drank rice wine slowly after "hosts" requited with hands folded together in front. The wine in the cup shouldn't be drunk up at once so as to show respect to the "hosts". The whole ceremony lasted nearly two hours with twelve steps including welcoming guests, washing cups, obeisance etiquettes, drinking wine and reciting classic poems.

According to the principal student, "wine ceremony" was an academic ceremony in ancient China. Local sages are invited to the grand ceremony in midwinter every year. The ceremony showed respect to knowledge and people with talents. The students hoped to promote traditional Chinese culture and recall respect for classical culture by this activity.

As the ceremony has almost been lost since the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD), the students held the ceremony according to ancient books from library. The Han-style clothes they wore were also self-designed referring to historical information.

An Interview with Jancis Robinson

November 12th, 2007 by GrapeRadio Bunch in Discussion, Podcast


Unless you have been on a desert island for the past 20 years, the name Jancis Robinson will need no introduction. However, for those of you who have unfortunately been marooned, here is a brief introduction.

Since 1975, Jancis has been one of the preeminent voices in the world of wine. A Master of Wine, author of several books – most notably a massive tome called The Oxford Companion to Wine – as well as several television shows and other broadcast media, Jancis is considered to be the one of the most (if not the most) prolific wine writers on the planet.

Join us as we talk with Jancis about wine, her career, her colleagues, and her huge impact on a generation and a half of wine consumers.

For more information on Jancis Robinson: www.jancisrobinson.com

To hear an excerpt from this interview click here

To listen to the entire interview from Grape Radio click here.

New China Wine Tours Video

We have just added a beautiful new video to the China Wine Tours site. Please visit the gallery page and enjoy! You will need to have Quicktime installed in your browser, so be sure to click the "install" link at the top of the page if it opens. If you are unable to do that, you can click the individual file for your internet speed (or right-click to download to your computer)

Chinese Tipplers Discover Wine

From oregonmag.com

A Chinese government study reports that Chinese wine consumption will grow 15% over the next five years. Most of this consumption will be fueled by domestic producers who are now learning the art of premium dry wine output. The government claims Chinese currently consume more beer per capita than any other nation. Germany and Canada might well argue this point. Current Chinese wine consumption is 0.4 liter a year per capita, compared to a global wine drinking norm of seven liters per capita

China Wine Tours on "Let's Dine Out" radio show

China Wine Tours appeared on the "Let's Dine Out" radio show on August 11, 2007 to talk about Chinese wine and the tour coming up in March of 2008.

To hear the interview click here. (17.5mb mp3 file)

CHINA WINE TOURS CREATES A UNIQUE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE

Los Angeles, California June 18, 2007 - “Taste the Culture of 5,000 Years™” --China Wine Tours is the first travel organization in the United States with a focus on this exciting new way to visit China. Travelers are introduced to the history and culture of China and to what promises to be more than just the ‘talk of the town’, it will be the talk of the world for those who want to enjoy a unique wine-travel experience. “Our tours are designed to showcase the rapidly growing wine industry in China, along with the ancient sites everyone is familiar with,” said George Aballi, CWT travel agent.

The March 2008 China Wine Tour will feature Sommelier Paolo Wakham who will lead the tour into Chinese wineries. Paolo is a member of the International Court of Master Sommeliers & the Sommeliers Society of Washington, D.C.. He has been passionate about wine, food, tradition, culture & history for decades. He teaches classes on the history & evolution of wine on a regular basis and has toured with many groups throughout the wine regions of the world. “The ‘new frontier’ of the international wine world IS China” according to Paolo. Mr. Wakham's taste buds want to blow the cellar doors off of this once forbidden land so everyone can experience the emerging world of Chinese wine.

It is worth noting that China has good capabilities for vine growing and wine making. It has a wide variety of soils, many different climates and micro-climates, indigenous and imported grapes, as well as a huge population that constitutes a tremendous potential market for wine. China has 5,000 years of history and culture that travelers already enjoy and a 2,000 year history of wine making. China Wine Tours has combined both by inviting travelers to “Taste the Culture of 5,000 Years™.”

The first China Wine Tour is now available for reservations for the March 2008 journey. Details are available at http://www.chinawinetours.com/ or by calling George Aballi at
1-909-793-0328 ext. 311.

ABOUT CHINA WINE TOURS – China Wine Tours travel agents have created unique travel experiences in China for more than 20 years. Visit our website at http://www.chinawinetours.com/.

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B-roll video will be available in late summer of 2007. Contact 1-888-USPLANB or 1-818-998-8833.