By Lee Mack (City Weekend)
Updated: 2007-08-07 10:42

Heretofore confined to expensive hotel bars and pre-arranged tastings, Beijing's wine culture has found a human-sized home here.

Featuring a full range of wines, Big 9 keeps prices low by skipping the middle man and importing directly. Numerous bottles sell for under RMB 150, the best of the bunch being a full-bodied Robert Grillou 2005 Merlot for RMB 128. It's an interesting gambit in the Summergate/ASC dominated Beijing wine world, but owner Jin Xiaomin believes wine should be enjoyed between friends, not business entities. Big 9 is also a real bar, serving up glasses of whatever's already open (RMB 30-100).

The interior, decked in rich wood with wine casks as tables, feels like an Outback hunting lodge, exactly the right note for us civilized Westerners scuffling about in the wild, wild East.

Perfect for: wine downunder.

Big 9 Wine Club
Location: 1/F City Hotel, 4 Gongti Donglu
Tel: 010-6500-7388/36