Education is key to making the most of the enormous opportunity for wine in China, according to local distributors.
Education is key to making the most of the enormous opportunity for wine in China, according to local distributors.
With such a new and fragmented market, education is being seen as a key point of difference by suppliers and distributors looking to build their reputation in the country.
Don St Pierre Jnr of Chinese wine importer and distributor,ASC Fine Wines, said it was a fundamental part of its growth strategy to build its brand on the back of consumer and trade education.
He and other wine distributors are being helped in their task by the fact the Wine & Spirit Education Trust now has levels one, two and three of its programme available in Chinese.
"It is a fantastic time to build your reputation and give our customers the tools to tell our products," said St Pierre Jnr. He said education was one of the fastest growing parts of its business. The major online players are using education as a key point of difference in what they offer customers.
David Pedrol of Yesmywine.com said some of the wines on its site might have four pages of content about them.
There is also an incredible willingness to learn about wine amongst a diverse range of consumers, said Ian Ford of Chinese distributor, Summergate Wines.
"There is a great opportunity to build a wine culture in China," he said.
The danger is new consumers being put off by the large number of fraudulent companies peddling counterfeit or overly expensive wines.
He also challenged "the principles" of some major international wine companies working in China who were potentially guilty, in his view, of trying to get overly inflated prices for wines that do not have the history or critical acclaim to justify them.