StartupNation Honors Nation’s Top Home-Based businesses
China Wine Tours Wins Top Honors in Business Competition under the Yummiest category.
Redlands, CA –November 22, 2008– China Wine Tours has been recognized by StartupNation (http://www.startupnation.com) as one of the top businesses in its annual Home Based 100 competition under the category of “Yummiest”.
Many of the StartupNation Home-Based 100 submissions revealed that business owners are bucking the current economic downturn and finding business success in these tight times. Historically some of today’s most well known businesses started in a downturn, including Microsoft and General Electric.
“The 2008 ranking shows that the home-based business is more relevant than ever. The current recession has spurred a new wave of home based businesses as a response to loss of jobs, the need for supplemental income and the sheer passion for blazing your own trail and running your own show,” said Rich Sloan, co-founder of StartupNation.com, one of the leading small business networking and advice websites. “Home based businesses are the biggest block of all businesses in existence and we expect numbers to grow ever greater as extra bedrooms, kitchen tables, basements and garages become host to the innovative thinking and pursuit of success by millions of Americans.”
“Marc Curtis, founder of ChinaWineTours.com is proud to accept 8th place in the top 10 Top Home based businesses of 2008 by StartupNation.com.”
The StartupNation Home-Based 100 highlights 10 top-ten lists making it not just your ordinary business ranking. From the wackiest, to the most innovative, to the best financial performers – this unique and diverse list highlights the home-based businesses that usually go unrecognized, but still play a vital role in the economy today. The ten categories for 2008 include:
• Best Financial Performers
• Most Innovative
• Boomers Back in Business
• Greenest
• Yummiest
• Wackiest
• Grungiest
• Recession Busters
• Most Slacker-Friendly
• Most Glamorous
In addition to StartupNation staff, judges for this year’s Home Based 100 ranking included Adam Lowry, co-founder of Method Products, Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks North America, John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, Mel Robbins, host of Make It Happen radio show.
The full results of the Home-Based 100 ranking are available on StartupNation’s website at http://www.startupnation.com/hb100.
###
About StartupNation
StartupNation (www.startupnation.com) provides over 175,000 pages of business advice and networking for entrepreneurs and serves millions of entrepreneurs annually.. . StartupNation is a free service founded by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs with the intention of providing a one-stop shop for entrepreneurial success, including blogs from a host of experts, podcasts, webcasts, eBooks, award-winning step-by-step advice, and more. .
About the Startupnation’s Founders – The Sloan Brothers
StartupNation co-founders and “chief startupologists,” Rich and Jeff Sloan, are two of the country’s leading small business experts and ran their business from home for eight years. The Sloan brothers speak frequently at entrepreneurial forums and act as sources for top media venues nationwide. They are authors of StartupNation: Open for Business, published by Doubleday, and provide their insight online at www.startupnation.com. The Sloan brothers are regularly quoted and featured in media such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune Small Business, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, FOX News and many others.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Wineglasses Rising
China's newfound obsession with wineby Mike Steinberger - Slate Magazine
A specter is haunting Western wine geeks: the prospect of 1 billion Chinese people besotted with wine. As China becomes an economic colossus, its increasingly voracious appetite for scarce natural resources will inevitably extend to the world's most sought-after wines. If even a tiny fragment of China's population acquires the means and desire to regularly drink the likes of Haut-Brion and Romanée-Conti, the effect on (already high) prices and (already tight) supplies will be profound. And, in fact, the balance of wine-buying power is already shifting eastward: Chinese collectors have furiously sought out one first-growth Bordeaux, Château Lafite; and Hong Kong, which recently lifted all duties on wine, is now poised to rival London and New York as a hub of the global wine trade. Of course, there is always the possibility that China could eventually slake its own growing thirst for cabernets and merlots. China has a long viticultural heritage, and on the back of the country's economic gains, the local wine industry is booming: China is now the world's sixth-largest wine producer. But output is one thing, and quality is another. Might there soon be truly fine wines bearing the "Made in China" label?
The complete story at Slate Magazine
A specter is haunting Western wine geeks: the prospect of 1 billion Chinese people besotted with wine. As China becomes an economic colossus, its increasingly voracious appetite for scarce natural resources will inevitably extend to the world's most sought-after wines. If even a tiny fragment of China's population acquires the means and desire to regularly drink the likes of Haut-Brion and Romanée-Conti, the effect on (already high) prices and (already tight) supplies will be profound. And, in fact, the balance of wine-buying power is already shifting eastward: Chinese collectors have furiously sought out one first-growth Bordeaux, Château Lafite; and Hong Kong, which recently lifted all duties on wine, is now poised to rival London and New York as a hub of the global wine trade. Of course, there is always the possibility that China could eventually slake its own growing thirst for cabernets and merlots. China has a long viticultural heritage, and on the back of the country's economic gains, the local wine industry is booming: China is now the world's sixth-largest wine producer. But output is one thing, and quality is another. Might there soon be truly fine wines bearing the "Made in China" label?
The complete story at Slate Magazine
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Wine in the World’s Largest Market
GrapeWallofChina.com July 18, 2008
By Jim Boyce
Robert Joseph is founder of the International Wine Challenge, author of The Complete Encyclopedia of Wine, editor-at-large for Wine Business International, and a visitor to China since the mid-1980s. I met him in Beijing last Saturday at China World Hotel and asked him about market trends, wine tourism, the pros and cons of blind tastings, and more.
.....
Tourism and wine links are found throughout China, whether in terms of resorts at Bodega Langes (Hebei) and Chateau Junding (Shandong), more modest facilities at Grace Vineyard (Shanxi) and Yunnan Red (Yunnan), harvest festivals at wineries, or the upcoming inaugural visit by California-based China Wine Tours. If you updated your Wine Travel Guide to the World, what would you write about China?
“China is going to be huge in tourism in all sorts of ways - ingoing and outgoing. The wineries have deep pockets, so I think wine tourism will and should develop in China, and this itself will help to boost wine consumption and make drinking wine a lifestyle activity.”
“At that point, it will be interesting to see China overtake France, ironically, in the sophistication of its wine tourism, just as Argentina and Chile already have. France, despite developments in Napa Valley, in New Zealand, and elsewhere in the New World, has not learned tourism lessons significantly. Arguably, China is already offering better wine tourism than France.”
By Jim Boyce
Robert Joseph is founder of the International Wine Challenge, author of The Complete Encyclopedia of Wine, editor-at-large for Wine Business International, and a visitor to China since the mid-1980s. I met him in Beijing last Saturday at China World Hotel and asked him about market trends, wine tourism, the pros and cons of blind tastings, and more.
.....
Tourism and wine links are found throughout China, whether in terms of resorts at Bodega Langes (Hebei) and Chateau Junding (Shandong), more modest facilities at Grace Vineyard (Shanxi) and Yunnan Red (Yunnan), harvest festivals at wineries, or the upcoming inaugural visit by California-based China Wine Tours. If you updated your Wine Travel Guide to the World, what would you write about China?
“China is going to be huge in tourism in all sorts of ways - ingoing and outgoing. The wineries have deep pockets, so I think wine tourism will and should develop in China, and this itself will help to boost wine consumption and make drinking wine a lifestyle activity.”
“At that point, it will be interesting to see China overtake France, ironically, in the sophistication of its wine tourism, just as Argentina and Chile already have. France, despite developments in Napa Valley, in New Zealand, and elsewhere in the New World, has not learned tourism lessons significantly. Arguably, China is already offering better wine tourism than France.”
Friday, July 25, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Winery Taps into the Chinese wine market
Filippi brand to be sold on far-off shelves
Wendy Leung, Staff Writer
San Bernardino Sun: 06/29/2008 07:42:09 PM PDT
The Chinese straying from tea as their beverage of choice shouldn't be hard to believe.
It didn't take long after the red curtain was raised in the late 1970s for China to embrace Coca-Cola.
And when the Germans settled into the eastern port town of Tsingtao, beer quickly reached the lips of those used to rice wine.
But a goblet of cabernet to go with the kung pao?
.....
Marc Curtis started the Redlands-based China Wine Tours, which will have its first group tour in October bringing American wine enthusiasts to visit the wineries in China. Curtis said the wine scene has changed dramatically, and small boutique wineries are popping up in the provinces of Shandong, Shanxi and Xinjiang.
"Right now, China is the sixth-largest wine producing country in the world and experts say by 2058, they'll be No. 1," Curtis said. "I think it's going to be sooner than that."
If that's the case, Chateau China doesn't seem so odd after all and as the country develops a generation of wine snobs, Cucamonga wines could play a role.
Wendy Leung, Staff Writer
San Bernardino Sun: 06/29/2008 07:42:09 PM PDT
The Chinese straying from tea as their beverage of choice shouldn't be hard to believe.
It didn't take long after the red curtain was raised in the late 1970s for China to embrace Coca-Cola.
And when the Germans settled into the eastern port town of Tsingtao, beer quickly reached the lips of those used to rice wine.
But a goblet of cabernet to go with the kung pao?
.....
Marc Curtis started the Redlands-based China Wine Tours, which will have its first group tour in October bringing American wine enthusiasts to visit the wineries in China. Curtis said the wine scene has changed dramatically, and small boutique wineries are popping up in the provinces of Shandong, Shanxi and Xinjiang.
"Right now, China is the sixth-largest wine producing country in the world and experts say by 2058, they'll be No. 1," Curtis said. "I think it's going to be sooner than that."
If that's the case, Chateau China doesn't seem so odd after all and as the country develops a generation of wine snobs, Cucamonga wines could play a role.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Made in China -- wine that may soon rival the best of Bordeaux
BORDEAUX, Burgundy… Xinjiang. by scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com 2008-05-26.
The world's wine map may have to be significantly re-drawn with figures showing more than a glass is being raised to China. Such is the pace of wine consumption in China that last year the country produced more than 700 million bottles with new statistics showing that production will outstrip Australia's by 2009.
Supermarket chain Morrisons has already added two wines from the north-west of China to its portfolio, while London fine wine merchants Berry Brothers & Rudd (BBR) has predicted that, by 2058, China will have all the essential ingredients to make fine wine to rival the best of Bordeaux.
Jasper Morris, senior buyer for BBR, says he expects China's current 400 wineries to grow by more than tenfold with up to a quarter producing fine quality wine.
"I absolutely think China will be a fine wine player rivalling the best wines from France. It is entirely conceivable that, in such a vast country, there will be pockets of land with a terroir and micro-climate well suited to the production of top quality wines."
Wine consumption is rocketing in China. More than a 100 wineries have opened since 1996, swelling the number of vineyards to more than 500.
New figures from the Chinese government, showing the production of 700 million bottles of wine in 2007, indicate that it is the sixth largest producer in the world. This figure is expected to increase substantially over the next five to 10 years, driven by demand from China's burgeoning middle class.
At present, there are 310,000 US dollar millionaires in China and 106 US dollar billionaires. Demand for wine, both domestic and imported, has reached unprecedented levels.
According to Alberto Fernandez, general manager of Torres China, a wine importer with offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, there are currently fewer than 10 well-known Chinese labels but they enjoy "huge consumer awareness" in China and often beat better imported labels for shelf space.
Most vineyards in China are state or collectively owned and subdivided into individual plots of less than half a hectare. Shandong, to the south-east of Beijing, is the largest producer. Having the same latitude to California, it is one of the most suitable regions for producing wines.
In the north-west, Xinjiang province is also a major producer but its production is hampered by the bitterly cold winters.
Chinese wine typically sells for 35 yuan (£2.60) a bottle, although some finer varieties can sell for over 400 yuan (£29). For example, China Torres sells a bottle of Chairman's Reserve, a blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot, from the Grace vineyard in Shanxi region, for 405 yuan.
Foreign wines sell for over 100 yuan at the lower end, and fine wines go for thousands of yuan.
Philippe Larue, director of Scottish wine merchants l'Art du Vin, said: "It goes very well with Chinese food. You can grow grapes almost anywhere in the world now, so why not China? But when they like something they are very good at systematically recreating it. If they want to make good wine, they will learn and copy it and try and make it the best in the world.
"They also have to find their own identity. There is no point in just recreating the great wines of Europe. Rather like Argentina made the Malbec grape variety its own, China will have to find something that represents what they are producing."
The news comes as Hong Kong is set to overtake London as the wine market and storage centre of choice for Asia's wealthy. Most of the region's super rich buy and store their fine wines in London, but auction house Bonhams has already held its first auction of wine there in a decade, while New York wine merchant Acker Merrall & Condit is holding one in Hong Kong next Sunday.
The world's wine map may have to be significantly re-drawn with figures showing more than a glass is being raised to China. Such is the pace of wine consumption in China that last year the country produced more than 700 million bottles with new statistics showing that production will outstrip Australia's by 2009.
Supermarket chain Morrisons has already added two wines from the north-west of China to its portfolio, while London fine wine merchants Berry Brothers & Rudd (BBR) has predicted that, by 2058, China will have all the essential ingredients to make fine wine to rival the best of Bordeaux.
Jasper Morris, senior buyer for BBR, says he expects China's current 400 wineries to grow by more than tenfold with up to a quarter producing fine quality wine.
"I absolutely think China will be a fine wine player rivalling the best wines from France. It is entirely conceivable that, in such a vast country, there will be pockets of land with a terroir and micro-climate well suited to the production of top quality wines."
Wine consumption is rocketing in China. More than a 100 wineries have opened since 1996, swelling the number of vineyards to more than 500.
New figures from the Chinese government, showing the production of 700 million bottles of wine in 2007, indicate that it is the sixth largest producer in the world. This figure is expected to increase substantially over the next five to 10 years, driven by demand from China's burgeoning middle class.
At present, there are 310,000 US dollar millionaires in China and 106 US dollar billionaires. Demand for wine, both domestic and imported, has reached unprecedented levels.
According to Alberto Fernandez, general manager of Torres China, a wine importer with offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, there are currently fewer than 10 well-known Chinese labels but they enjoy "huge consumer awareness" in China and often beat better imported labels for shelf space.
Most vineyards in China are state or collectively owned and subdivided into individual plots of less than half a hectare. Shandong, to the south-east of Beijing, is the largest producer. Having the same latitude to California, it is one of the most suitable regions for producing wines.
In the north-west, Xinjiang province is also a major producer but its production is hampered by the bitterly cold winters.
Chinese wine typically sells for 35 yuan (£2.60) a bottle, although some finer varieties can sell for over 400 yuan (£29). For example, China Torres sells a bottle of Chairman's Reserve, a blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot, from the Grace vineyard in Shanxi region, for 405 yuan.
Foreign wines sell for over 100 yuan at the lower end, and fine wines go for thousands of yuan.
Philippe Larue, director of Scottish wine merchants l'Art du Vin, said: "It goes very well with Chinese food. You can grow grapes almost anywhere in the world now, so why not China? But when they like something they are very good at systematically recreating it. If they want to make good wine, they will learn and copy it and try and make it the best in the world.
"They also have to find their own identity. There is no point in just recreating the great wines of Europe. Rather like Argentina made the Malbec grape variety its own, China will have to find something that represents what they are producing."
The news comes as Hong Kong is set to overtake London as the wine market and storage centre of choice for Asia's wealthy. Most of the region's super rich buy and store their fine wines in London, but auction house Bonhams has already held its first auction of wine there in a decade, while New York wine merchant Acker Merrall & Condit is holding one in Hong Kong next Sunday.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
China Wine Tours on CNBC
Check the gallery page of China Wine Tours to see the news story that CNBC's Mike Hegedus did about Chinese Wine and China Wine Tours!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
New report predicts boom in China wine producers
It's the crystal ball of all things wine, the Future of Wine report by London based merchants, Berry Brothers and Rudd. Their prediction? That China's wine producers will lead the world by 2058, rivallling the best of Bordeaux.
Presenter: Bo Hill
Speakers: Marc Curtis, founder China Wine Tours; Steve Clarke, president, China Silk Imports.
HILL: Champagne, Bordeaux, Napa Valley, the Rhine, the Barossa Valley - the names of old and new world wine regions slide over the tongue as easily as, well, a good red. But what about Shanxi?
CURTIS: In Shanxi province is what's considered to be the best wine in China right now is Grace Vineyards and they've become the house wine in such hotels as the Peninsula, and some other very high end hotels, they're so good."
Full article and audio stream at: Radio Australia
Presenter: Bo Hill
Speakers: Marc Curtis, founder China Wine Tours; Steve Clarke, president, China Silk Imports.
HILL: Champagne, Bordeaux, Napa Valley, the Rhine, the Barossa Valley - the names of old and new world wine regions slide over the tongue as easily as, well, a good red. But what about Shanxi?
CURTIS: In Shanxi province is what's considered to be the best wine in China right now is Grace Vineyards and they've become the house wine in such hotels as the Peninsula, and some other very high end hotels, they're so good."
Full article and audio stream at: Radio Australia
Monday, April 28, 2008
China Winery Visit: Bordeaux Style
In March I had the opportunity to visit Chateau Bolongbao in Hebei Province, about an hour outside of Beijing. Also along on the visit was Jim Boyce, author of The Grape Wall of China blog who posted a story and some photos about our visit.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Global Warming to Help China
http://www.indianwineacademy.com/item_1966.aspx
Whether it is toys, computers or silk sarees from India, China can make more and cheaper. Now Mother Nature is also benevolent. With global warming to its aid China is set to become a prominent wine producing country in a few decades.
Speaking at the Climate Change and Wine Conference in Barcelona which was reported in the previous issue of delWine, the Australian consultant on viticulture, Dr Richard Smart said: "In 30 years time, China will be a country better able to adapt to global warming." He was talking on 'global warming and its impact on vines and viticulture' at the conference.
Dr. Smart is already involved in advising Chinese investors looking to purchase suitable wine producing land and they are currently looking at an area close to Beijing.
Smart said that while China, currently 8th largest producer of grapes in the world is very wet near the coast and more arid towards the inland, would provide exciting opportunities in the future, going northwards.
Southern hemisphere regions like Chile, Argentina, Tasmania and New Zealand, as well as Northern Europe and even some parts of China are 'lucky', Smart suggested, as there was room for growers to move to cooler or higher areas to plant grapes.
Growing new varieties of grapes especially for hotter regions would be a crucial industry response to ongoing global warming, he said. Smart also suggested harvesting at night and the utilization of classical breeding rather than molecular techniques as a potential solution.
The conference kicked off with an address from Pancho Campo, President of the Wine Academy of Spain, and local politicians. A spokesman from the Catalan department of climate said, 'There is no point crying over spilt milk. We have to find solutions for our problems and that is exactly what we intend to do today."
President of OIV, the International Organisation for Vine and Wine, Peter Hayes said the challenges being posed by climate change to the wine sector were reflected across the world. 'I hope we might see action on regional planning" adding that it was a question of allocation of resources.'
Whether it is toys, computers or silk sarees from India, China can make more and cheaper. Now Mother Nature is also benevolent. With global warming to its aid China is set to become a prominent wine producing country in a few decades.
Speaking at the Climate Change and Wine Conference in Barcelona which was reported in the previous issue of delWine, the Australian consultant on viticulture, Dr Richard Smart said: "In 30 years time, China will be a country better able to adapt to global warming." He was talking on 'global warming and its impact on vines and viticulture' at the conference.
Dr. Smart is already involved in advising Chinese investors looking to purchase suitable wine producing land and they are currently looking at an area close to Beijing.
Smart said that while China, currently 8th largest producer of grapes in the world is very wet near the coast and more arid towards the inland, would provide exciting opportunities in the future, going northwards.
Southern hemisphere regions like Chile, Argentina, Tasmania and New Zealand, as well as Northern Europe and even some parts of China are 'lucky', Smart suggested, as there was room for growers to move to cooler or higher areas to plant grapes.
Growing new varieties of grapes especially for hotter regions would be a crucial industry response to ongoing global warming, he said. Smart also suggested harvesting at night and the utilization of classical breeding rather than molecular techniques as a potential solution.
The conference kicked off with an address from Pancho Campo, President of the Wine Academy of Spain, and local politicians. A spokesman from the Catalan department of climate said, 'There is no point crying over spilt milk. We have to find solutions for our problems and that is exactly what we intend to do today."
President of OIV, the International Organisation for Vine and Wine, Peter Hayes said the challenges being posed by climate change to the wine sector were reflected across the world. 'I hope we might see action on regional planning" adding that it was a question of allocation of resources.'
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The China Wine Syndrome
From Michael Veseth's Grape Expectations
I've never tasted Chinese wine, but that's going to change quite soon. I have two bottles, both hand-carried from China by my former student Brian West. One is a 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon from China's oldest winery, Changyu (founded in 1892). The other is a 2003 Tasya's Reserve Cabernet Franc from what many people say is China's best winery, Grace Vineyard (or Shanxi Grace Vineyard to differentiate it from a Japanese winery with the same name -- Shanxi is the region of China where Grace Vineyard is located).
I have heard a lot of stories about Chinese wine -- about how bad it is, how prestige-seeking Shanghai yuppies mix expensive first growth Bordeaux with Coca Cola and of vast vineyards in China that threaten to flood world markets with cheap wine (as Chinese exports have flooded some other markets already). The prospect of drinking Chinese wine for the first time gave me an incentive to see what I could find out about the Chinese wine industry and market. Here is a brief account of what I have learned.
The complete article is available at Michael Veseth's Grape Expectations
I've never tasted Chinese wine, but that's going to change quite soon. I have two bottles, both hand-carried from China by my former student Brian West. One is a 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon from China's oldest winery, Changyu (founded in 1892). The other is a 2003 Tasya's Reserve Cabernet Franc from what many people say is China's best winery, Grace Vineyard (or Shanxi Grace Vineyard to differentiate it from a Japanese winery with the same name -- Shanxi is the region of China where Grace Vineyard is located).
I have heard a lot of stories about Chinese wine -- about how bad it is, how prestige-seeking Shanghai yuppies mix expensive first growth Bordeaux with Coca Cola and of vast vineyards in China that threaten to flood world markets with cheap wine (as Chinese exports have flooded some other markets already). The prospect of drinking Chinese wine for the first time gave me an incentive to see what I could find out about the Chinese wine industry and market. Here is a brief account of what I have learned.
The complete article is available at Michael Veseth's Grape Expectations
Now, Super-wine to boost your lifespan
London, Jan 8 (ANI): The health benefits of wine have since long been known, but now fans of the fruity cocktail may have something new to cheer about, for Chinese scientists have made a wine made from genetically engineered grapes which might help boost the drinkers longevity.
Yuejin Wang and colleagues at the Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University in Yangling, Shaanxi province, China, have produced a grapevine six times richer in resveratrol the compound in red wine associated with health benefits.
The researchers made the wine equipped it with an extra gene from a wild Chinese vine, reports New Scientist.
Vitus pseudoreticulata has an unusual variant of the stilbene synthase gene, which triggers resveratrol production.
The team plans to make wine from the GM (Genetically Engineered) vine, although their major goal is to make grapevines more resistant to fungus, which is kept in check by resveratrol. (ANI)
Yuejin Wang and colleagues at the Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University in Yangling, Shaanxi province, China, have produced a grapevine six times richer in resveratrol the compound in red wine associated with health benefits.
The researchers made the wine equipped it with an extra gene from a wild Chinese vine, reports New Scientist.
Vitus pseudoreticulata has an unusual variant of the stilbene synthase gene, which triggers resveratrol production.
The team plans to make wine from the GM (Genetically Engineered) vine, although their major goal is to make grapevines more resistant to fungus, which is kept in check by resveratrol. (ANI)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
