The capital of China is the home of the 1st BRWC, Belt & Road Wine and Spirit Competition. Belt & Road refers to the ancient Chinese Silk Road, which connected nations and was a major trade route. Belt also refers to Fangshan wine region, where there is a belt of young, ambitious wineries. Nowadays Asia is the land of dynamic changes regarding wines and spirits, and this event – a conference and a wine competition – aims to connect the Silk Road states. India, Izrael, Japan, South Korea, Lebanon, Gergia, Armenia are all represented and of course the main focus is on Chinese wines.

This huge country is the biggest comsumer of red wines, and the consumers are more and more conscious. The era when any wine from Bordeaux could be sold for any price is over. Now the online wine merchants have proved that fine wines should not be extraordinary expensive, thus retailers had to adust to this new, transparent system. Thanks to Internet, Chinese people cannot be fooled any more. And it seems that the era of buying wines only as gift is also over, young Chinese often drink wine regularly, because they like it, and because they consider it healthier then for example the local spirit called baiju. Now they are open for new wines from new wine regions. French is still the number 1 imported wine and probably it will remain for a long time, but other nations will soon have more chance to show their talent.

BRWC is accompanied by an exhibition, where Hungarian wines are displayed as well due to an importing company called Morgan Star Group. Three wine regions are represented: Tokaj, Villány and Eger. Hétszőlő from Tokaj is highly
recommended as well as Vylyan from Villány and Gróf Buttler from Eger.

The wine exhibition is on 10–12 October, so if you happen to stay in Beijing, do not miss BRWC and the Hungarian pavilion!

More info: www.aws-silkroute.com