Shanghai Daily news

The huge job of educating China's younger generation about the joys of quaffing imported wines is being happily shouldered by a young Shanghainese who learned his trade from master winemakers in France, writes Ayesha de Kretser.

Li bing is an instantly likeable chap, not least because he offers me a glass of wine at 10am instead of a cup of coffee.
Tall and handsome, with a cheeky grin, Li is the perfect ambassador to promote China's newly emerging wine culture. In his role as a wine educator for ASC Wines, Li is responsible for cultivating an appreciation for wine in a relatively new market of drinkers - China's younger generation.
The story behind his interest in wine started when he arrived in Paris to study an MBA program nearly five years ago. There among the wine-loving French, Li developed an appreciation for fine wines. The interest was fostered by his French friends whom he says made great efforts to teach him about the different regions and varieties of wine during trips to the supermarkets or restaurants.
Li's curiosity and eagerness to learn more were rewarded by the traditionally snobbish French. He attributes this openness and encouragement to the fact that he is Chinese.
"I'm from China, so of course I didn't know anything about wine and they didn't expect me to," he says. "French people were very good to me and they taught me a lot."
After learning from the masters, Li decided to complement his MBA studies with a degree from a school in Dijon in Burgundy which taught a course in wine culture. At this stage he wasn't sure if his studies would lead to a job and the move was considered quite risky from a career perspective.
"I wasn't certain whether I'd be employed but I did some studies of the world wine market and saw the high growth rate in the China market, despite the fact that not many Chinese people know about wine," he recalls.
"I started studying purely to learn about wine and little by little the possibilities grew greater."
When he finished his degree, Li started working for Chateaux Online, the largest online wine distributor in Europe. He worked there for eight months, secretly searching for opportunities to work back in China, where he could use his advantage - of being Chinese - to much better effect.
"So many people already know about wine in Paris and I knew I could be of more use where there was a greater demand for wine knowledge," he says.
His financial savvy is not just proved by having an MBA from a French university but by his ability to search out and find business opportunities. But what is most impressive about him is that he has managed to combine doing something he loves - talking about wine - with his business skills.
Li approached ASC Wines, China's largest wine importing company, because he could see the company was focused on wine education in order to continue and ensure the growth of their business in China.
He met with bosses of the company in Paris and after being interviewed he was on his way back to Shanghai to work for them.
One of the key responsibilities of his job is wine training for staff in restaurants and bars. Of more interest though is the fact that Li is running a wine school for young Chinese people who want to learn more about wine for purely social reasons.
"All of them are young and working in big international companies. What's surprising is that there are more girls than boys in the class, I guess because girls in Shanghai are more trendy," he says.
It's not a serious class - more like a casual get together - where Li leads (he prefers this term to "teaches") his charges to get them to talk about wine themselves using references to Chinese culture and their own vocabulary to do so.
"Westerners might say a cabernet sauvignon has black-currant flavors but in the Chinese language we relate the flavor to that of the red date instead because we don't know what a black-currant tastes like," Li says.
Li's ability to use his extensive knowledge of wine and China's rich food culture makes him invaluable as an ambassador for this burgeoning industry.
Not only does he have a sense of humor, he believes in making wines accessible to ordinary Chinese.
"When people are less intimidated they'll be more receptive to buying wines," he says. "Chinese consumers are getting closer to wine and initiatives like our Chinese food and wine pairing are really helping."
Before leaving for Paris in 2000, Li had only ever tasted Chinese wines such as Dynasty and Great Wall. Asked to rate the quality of these wines today, he is far from scathing.
"Dynasty white is OK, I can drink it with food. On its own it's too acidic," he says.
Imported wines, he says, were not as readily available at the time he left for France and, if they were, they were very expensive.
"The perception that imported wines are expensive is now wrong because there's such a wide range available in today's market at different prices," he says.
In educating Chinese people about wine, Li is helping them to develop the confidence to try different things which in turn will boost the market not only for imported but also China's for home grown wine industry.
The wine classes take place at Mesa restaurant on Julu Road (near Fumin Road) where the chefs prepare a special menu of canapes to complement the wines being tasted. Li says the atmosphere is lively and full of fun and he says he wants to encourages as many Chinese-speaking people as possible to come along and see for themselves.
Anyone interested in taking part in ASC's wine school can contact the company on 6445-3214. The third round of classes will begin in October.