CHINESE LANGUAGE WINE EVENTS
I’m in the process of digging around to try to find out exactly how many companies are holding wine events (tastings, dinners and wine education sessions rather than just “wine parties”) in Chinese.

There is a common perceptions amongst wine importers that there is currently not much demand for publically available Chinese language wine events (as oposed to private or tailored events). Added to this is the fact that many events feature a visiting winemaker or winery representative – and very few of these people speak Chinese. Whilst a wine dinner or tasting can be interpreted, in many cases this isn’t done because a) most of the guests speak English, and/or b) the wine company feels that having everything interpreted slows down the event too much.

That said, there are some good publically available wine events in Chinese.
Fongyee and Edward Walker offer a range of wine tastings and events in Beijing in Chinese and/or English (www.longfengwines.com). These are usually great value for money and very well organised.

Ease Scent (www.easescent.com) are a locally owned wine education company that have offices in 5 cities (Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Suzhou and Changsha), and offer various wine tasting and education events, including the Wines & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) certificate programmes – however the WSET exams are in English.

WINE PRICING IN CHINA
M Elliott raises a good question regarding wine pricing in China. I’ll post something on this topic very soon – and hopefully get some responses and input from others who have a perspective on this.