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JING FONG RESTAURANT Chinatown, New York November 5, 2026
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DAVE & LOIS CHO Willamette Valley, OR
Côte d’Or & Beaujolais
TOMOKO KURIYAMA Marey-lès-Fussey VANESSA WONG (West) Sonoma Coast, CA
CHISA BIZE Savigny-lès-Beaune
SONOE HIRABAYASHI Oak Knoll District, Napa, CA
SEIICHI SAITO Pernand-Vergelesses
RENÉE SAINT-AMOUR Willamette Valley, OR
MEE GODARD Moulin-à-Vent JUNICHI FUJITA McMinnville, OR
Willamette Valley & North Coast
ICY LIU Santenay
ndy Dias u g r u Côte d’Or Meets the P po B acif e re the r ic R a h im T Whe Tonight, we bring together two of our favorite things, Burgundian wine and Cantonese cuisine, through the lens of the Asian and Asian-American winemakers boldly reshaping the world of fine wine. From the fog-draped ridges of the Sonoma Coast, the rolling hills of the Willamette Valley, and the slopes of the Côte d'Or, a new generation of Asian and Asian-American vintners is bringing fresh perspective to Burgundy’s most storied grape varieties: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Aligoté, and Gamay. Curated by Two Bottle Stef with guided pairings by Anju Wines, we’ll explore their wines over a classic Chinatown banquet feast. Timed to continue celebrating AAPI Heritage Month beyond the month of May, this tasting is as much a celebration of culture and community as it is of great wine: a toast to the Asian and Asian-American winemakers who have carved out their place in one of the world’s most tradition-bound industries.
飲勝
Cheers, (yam sing)! —Stefie, Jess, & Swon
TBS +
Aligoté, Pinot Beurot, & Chardonnay As Burgundy's overlooked “third" grape, Aligoté is historically planted in less prestigious sites, yet present in the region for over 200 years. Its parentage is surprisingly noble: a direct cross of Pinot Noir and Gouais Blanc, making it a sibling of Chardonnay, Gamay, and Riesling. The 1937 establishment of the Bourgogne-Aligoté AOC sidelined the grape by naming it by variety rather than place, reinforcing the perception it cannot express terroir, a stigma that persists today. Bouzeron remains the only village appellation dedicated exclusively to Aligoté, earning its own AOC in 1998 with significantly stricter yield limits.
What Chardonnay uniquely does is provide a textural background onto which the characteristics of a given terroir can emerge: be it the white flowers of Chablis Grand Cru, the sunshine-on-stones quality of Saint-Aubin, or the electric backbone of Puligny-Montrachet. In this sense, it is less a grape with a fixed personality and more a vessel for place. Chardonnay is grown in eight grand cru vineyards in Burgundy, including the celebrated Montrachets, CortonCharlemagne, and Le Musigny. The Burgundy examples were long considered the benchmark standard for expressing terroir through the variety.
A growing movement is rehabilitating the grape’s reputation, led by a group of nearly 50 domaines called Les Aligoteurs, demonstrating through careful viticulture and parcellaires that Aligoté can also compellingly express terroir.
Chardonnay yields a wide spectrum of white wines here, from taut, citrus-driven Chablis to rich, nutty, buttery wines in the Côte de Beaune, a range of expression unmatched by any other white grape in a single region.
Pinot Gris is a spontaneous color mutation of Pinot Noir, genetically identical to its parent but producing white or lightly copper-hued wines from brownish-pink berries. Known in Burgundy as Pinot Beurot, its local name is thought to derive from the resemblance of its skins to the brown bure cloth traditionally worn by monks.
As of 2006, 34 clonal varieties of Chardonnay had been identified in French vineyards, most developed at the University of Burgundy in Dijon. These so-called “Dijon” clones are now planted in cool-climate regions around the world, including Oregon’s Willamette Valley and California’s Sonoma Coast.
Present in Burgundy since that time, Pinot Gris spread alongside Pinot Noir across Europe yet was sidelined after phylloxera when replanting efforts concentrated almost entirely on Chardonnay & Pinot Noir. Today it has nearly vanished from Burgundy’s vineyards, though some defenders, including Chisa Bize, continue to produce varietal bottlings, and its ancient tradition of co-planting in field blends lives on in the work of producers like Junichi Fujita in Oregon.
The late 1990s brought a crisis in the form of premature oxidation (often called “premox”), where white Burgundies would darken rapidly and develop unattractive aromas of furniture polish and bruised apples well before their expected drinking window, prompting a fundamental rethinking of winemaking practices across the region.
Almost certainly indigenous to east-central France and so deeply embedded in Burgundy’s identity that books written before the mid-20th century didn’t even mention Chardonnay by name when covering white Burgundy — it was simply taken for granted as the region’s white grape.
Despite being Burgundy's undisputed white grape, Chardonnay’s global ubiquity has paradoxically become a source of identity tension: its easy adaptability making it the world’s most planted white variety, and for a time, the most polarizing, inspiring the “ABC” (Anything But Chardonnay) backlash of the 1990s and 2000s before a cooler-climate, lower-intervention revival restored its prestige.
About the Winemakers DAVE & LOIS CHO | CHO Wines; Willamette Valley, OR As founders of CHO Wines, they are the first Korean-American vintners in Oregon. Dave’s path to winemaking wound through music performances at California wineries, a formative stint meditating with monks in Burgundy, and a degree in Enology & Viticulture from Oregon State University before launching CHO Wines in 2020, earning recognition for his traditional method sparkling wines and Pinot Noir. Former nurse practitioner turned CEO, Lois runs the business/creative side of CHO Wines while founding the AAPI Food & Wine nonprofit, which brings an annual festival celebrating AAPI voices in food & wine to NYC. TOMOKO KURIYAMA | Chanterêves; Marey-lès-Fussey Born in Japan, she grew up surrounded by food & wine: her grandmother was a celebrated cooking teacher and her father a devoted fan of Bordeaux and Burgundy. She trained at the wine university in Geisenheim, Germany, before becoming estate manager at the renowned Friedrich Altenkirch in the Rheingau. A harvest internship at Domaine Simon Bize brought her to Burgundy in 2005, and to Guillaume Bott, her future husband and winemaking partner. Together they founded Chanterêves in 2010, quickly becoming a poster child for Burgundy’s new wave of micronégociants — crafting wines described as "made with a German precision, a Japanese attention to detail, and a French knowledge of the terroir."
SONOE HIRABAYASHI | Six Cloves; Napa Valley, CA Also born in Japan, she grew up in a family with generations of sake, soy sauce, and miso fermentation — a heritage that runs directly through her approach to winemaking. Pivoting from a New York import/export job led her to UC Davis, followed by apprenticeships at Kusuda Wines in New Zealand, Montsecano in Chile, and Littorai on the Sonoma Coast, where Ted Lemon’s holistic philosophy became a lasting influence. She founded Six Cloves in 2017, naming it after her ancestors’ centuries-old business insignia, with a winemaking ethos built on minimal intervention and the belief that her role is simply to be a faithful mediator between the grapes and the glass.
VANESSA WONG | Peay Vineyards; Sonoma Coast, CA She studied Viticulture & Enology at UC Davis before honing her craft at Château Lafite-Rothschild, Domaine Jean Gros, and Peter Michael Winery. She joined Peay Vineyards for its inaugural 2001 vintage and married co-founder Nick Peay in 2002. Together with Nick and his brother Andy, she farms a 53-acre hilltop estate just 4 miles from the Pacific Ocean in the far northwestern corner of the Sonoma Coast, producing benchmark cool-climate Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Syrah from one of California's most compelling and extreme terroirs.
SEIICHI SAITO | Petit-Roy; Pernand-Vergelesses Born in China and raised in Japan, he studied at the wine school in Beaune before moving to Burgundy in 2008, going on to work at Domaine Simon Bize, Mugnier, Rousseau, and Leflaive. In 2014, he co-founded La Lune, one of Beaune’s most beloved small restaurants, before launching Petit-Roy in 2017. Farming 2.1 hectares biodynamically with whole-cluster fermentation, minimal sulfur, and no new oak, Saito produces wines of bright fruit and remarkable precision that consistently punch well above their appellation.
Wineup Details WELCOME!
CHO Wines 2025 Pinot Gris ‘CHO Bubbles’ DAVE & LOIS CHO Tualatin Hills, Willamette Valley, OR
Aligoté
CHO Wines 2022 Aligoté ‘La Belle Promenade Vineyard’ DAVE & LOIS CHO Chehalem Mountains, Willamette Valley, OR
Chanterêves 2021 Bourgogne-Aligoté ‘Bas des Ees’ TOMOKO KURIYAMA BOTT Marey-lès-Fussey, Hautes-Côtes de Nuits, Burgundy, FR
Chardonnay I
Peay Vineyards 2022 Chardonnay West Sonoma Coast VANESSA WONG West Sonoma Coast, North Coast, CA
Domaine Simon Bize 2022 Savigny-lès-Beaune Blanc CHISA BIZE Savigny-lès-Beaune, Côte de Beaune, Burgundy, FR
Chardonnay II
Six Cloves 2020 Chardonnay ‘Linda Vista Vineyard’ SONOE HIRABAYASHI Oak Knoll District, Napa Valley, North Coast, CA
Petit-Roy 2023 Pernand-Vergelesses Blanc ‘Les Combottes’ SEIICHI SAITO Pernand-Vergelesses, Côte de Beaune, Burgundy, FR
Gamay
Hundred Suns 2024 Gamay Noir Willamette Valley RENÉE SAINT-AMOUR various AVAs, Willamette Valley, OR
Domaine Mee Godard 2023 Moulin-à-Vent ‘Deschanes’ MEE GODARD Moulin-à-Vent, Beaujolais, Burgundy, FR
Pinot Noir I
Junichi Fujita 2021 Pinot Noir ‘Konomama’ Brittan Vineyard JUNICHI FUJITA McMinnville, Willamette Valley, OR
Icy Liu 2024 Santenay Rouge ‘Mulan’ ICY LIU Beauregard, Santenay, Côte de Beaune, Burgundy, FR
Pinot Noir II
Peay Vineyards 2022 Pinot Noir ‘Scallop Shelf’ VANESSA WONG Sonoma Coast, North Coast, CA
Domaine Simon Bize 2022 Bourgogne Rouge ‘Les Perrières’ CHISA BIZE Savigny-lès-Beaune, Côte de Beaune, Burgundy, FR
Gamay & Pinot Noir Like Aligoté and Chardonnay, Gamay is a natural cross of Pinot Noir and Gouais Blanc, making all four grape varieties in tonight’s tasting part of the same extended family, with Pinot Noir as the common noble parent. Gamay allegedly first appeared in its eponymous village south of Beaune in the 1360s, emerging as a lifeline for growers devastated by Black Death, ripening 2 weeks earlier than Pinot Noir, easier to grow, and far more abundant. In 1395, Philippe the Bold banned Gamay as “a very bad and disloyal plant”, and 60 years later, Philippe the Good renewed the edict, declaring: “The Dukes of Burgundy are known as the lords of the best wines in Christendom. We will maintain our reputation”. The parallels to Aligoté’s institutional sidelining are hard to miss, both grapes cast out in favor of prestige. Pushed south by ducal decree, Gamay found its true home in the granite soils of Beaujolais, where it now covers 98% of the region’s vineyards, down from an estimated 160,000 hectares across France before phylloxera. Closely associated with carbonic maceration, Gamay produces the grape’s signature bright red fruit and floral character while softening its naturally high acidity. The banana and bubblegum notes caricatured in Beaujolais Nouveau are largely this technique at its most industrial. Beaujolais is far more than its Nouveau reputation suggests: 300 soil types, 10 distinct crus, and a younger generation of natural winemakers have driven a serious critical renaissance. The northern crus, built on schist and granite, are where Gamay makes its most compelling argument for greatness. Pinot Noir is the noble parent of every grape in tonight’s lineup: Chardonnay, Aligoté, and Gamay all trace their lineage back to this single ancestral vine.
First mentioned in written records in 1370 under the name Noirien, Pinot Noir is believed to have been cultivated in Burgundy even earlier, as no other medieval grape was thought capable of producing wines impressive enough for the papal court. Wine historians believe the association between Pinot Noir and Burgundy was no accident: the reputation of Burgundy's wines as “the finest in the world” was, in part, a carefully orchestrated propaganda triumph of the region’s Valois dukes. The same dukes, of course, used this prestige to justify banishing both Gamay and Aligoté. Pinot Noir is the quintessential interpreter of terroir, which is why in Burgundy, its name rarely appears on the label. The place takes precedence over the variety: the grape is simply the blank canvas on which the soil paints its colors. Its thin skin, sensitivity to frost and disease, and exacting demands in both vineyard and cellar make it one of the most unforgiving grapes in the world. Despite, or perhaps because of, its difficulty, Pinot Noir produces wines of extraordinary complexity: bright red fruits in youth, deepening into mushroom, damp leaves, and a beguiling sous-bois character with age, with the finest examples peaking 15 to 20 years after the vintage. The Sonoma Coast and Willamette Valley, home to tonight's American producers, are among the handful of regions outside Burgundy to have made a serious, credible claim to Pinot Noir’s full potential: cool climates, complex soils, and winemakers who, like the vignerons of the Côte d'Or, have staked everything on this one impossible grape.
RENÉE SAINT-AMOUR | Hundred Suns; Willamette Valley, OR Of Japanese and Chinese descent from Hilo, Hawai’i, she founded Hundred Suns with her husband Grant Coulter, who spent a formative decade as winemaker at Beaux Frères while Renée taught high school. In 2015, they sold their house in Portland and moved to the valley to build the domaine from scratch, with Renée eventually stepping out of the classroom to run the business full time. Working exclusively with organically farmed fruit and minimal intervention (native yeasts, no fining, no filtration), they produce small-lot Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Gamay widely regarded as among Oregon’s most exciting and personal wines. MEE GODARD | Domaine Mee Godard; Moulin-à-Vent Born to South Korean farmers and adopted at nine months by a French couple, she studied biochemistry and wine science at Oregon State University before returning to France for her Diplôme National d’Oenologue in Montpellier. She worked her way through internships at Domaine des Comtes Lafon and Maison Chanson in Burgundy before a chance discovery of Beaujolais led her to found her domaine in 2013, taking over the plots of a retiring winemaker and landing some of Morgon’s most coveted terroirs of Côte du Py, Corcelette, and Grand Cras. Farming organically with low yields and Burgundian-style vinification, she produces structured, ageworthy Gamay. JUNICHI FUJITA | Junichi Fujita; McMinnville, OR Born in Japan, he trained at UC Davis before working under Jura legend Pierre Overnoy and studying permaculture with Bill Mollison in Tasmania. A series of harvests across Europe, Australia, and New Zealand eventually led him to Résonance, where Jacques Lardière urged him to find land where the earth spoke to him, landing him a mineral-rich parcel in the McMinnville AVA, where he planted his Juna Vineyard following the natural farming principles of Masanobu Fukuoka. Inspired by 19th-century accounts of Burgundian field blends, the vineyard is planted to 25 Pinot Noir clones alongside Aligoté, Chardonnay, Gamay Noir, and Pinot Meunier, all cofermented into wines as philosophically rigorous as they are elegant.
About the Winemakers ICY LIU | Icy Liu; Santenay Originally from Taipei, she left an NYC career in finance to follow her passion for wine, moving to Burgundy in 2018 to earn an MBA in wine and a diploma in enology from the Burgundy School of Business. Since 2019 she has worked at Becky Wasserman & Co., overseeing social media and Asian market development, while founding the Asian Wine Professionals platform and hosting the podcast Ungrafted. Her micro-négociant label was born in 2022 when a friend offered access to organic old-vine Gamay from a grower who had previously sold to Ganevat, inspired by her work alongside Chanterêves and Claire Naudin. Her labels, designed by Sylvie Luccisano and inspired by Chinese landscape paintings and a Bruce Lee quote, are as distinctive as the wines themselves. CHISA BIZE | Domaine Simon Bize; Savigny-lès-Beaune She left a career in Tokyo banking to build a life in Burgundy alongside Patrick Bize, fourth-generation heir to Domaine Simon Bize, a family estate dating to 1880 and the benchmark producer of Savigny-lès-Beaune. Though she didn’t initially work at the domaine, she quietly pursued winemaking courses, including training with Anne-Claude Leflaive. Chisa introduced biodynamic farming to the estate beginning in 2008. When Patrick passed away suddenly in 2013, she and his sister Marielle carried on his legacy, preserving the domaine’s hallmarks of whole-cluster fermentation, low yields, and pure terroir expression, while introducing a line of experimental, Japanese-named sans soufre cuvées that bear her own unmistakable imprint.
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