By Jim Boyce | The Institute of Masters of Wine announced 13 new members today, including its first based in continental China, Fongyee Walker. From today’s institute press release:
Fongyee began to study wine whilst at Cambridge reading Classical Chinese, and became captain of the University Blind Wine Tasting Team, leading them to victory in 2004. In 2007, she moved to Beijing, China and became the co-founder, with Edward Ragg, of Dragon Phoenix Wine Consulting. She is now a specialist wine educator and consultant in English and Mandarin. Under her direction Dragon Phoenix has become one of China’s most successful wine education companies, providing the only taught WSET Level 4 in Mainland China. She also regularly judges, having been guest international judge for such shows as the Royal Melbourne Wine Show, AWOCA (Wines of Chile), and the Old Mutual Trophy South Africa. She was a significant contributor to the award-winning documentary film Red Obsession and has appeared as a commentator on Chinese Wine on CNN. She has written columns for Decanter Magazine, The World of Fine Wine, Caijing Ribao and reviews wines for RVF China and Wine in China. From 2015, she has been Wine Consultant to Air New Zealand.
Walker’s MW research paper focused on vine burial in the Ningxia region and Shanxi and Hebei provinces in China. Wineries across the northern swath of China have to bury their vines in fall and uncover them in spring, at considerable cost, as protection against the cold dry winters. Walker is also involved in the annual Wine 100 contest and recommends wines for Signature Wine Club.
There are now 353 Masters of Wine working in 28 countries.
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