Dynasty’s chairman discusses the future of Chinese wine(1)
One of the earliest wineries to establish itself in China was Dynasty Fine Wines Group, founded in 1980 as a joint venture with Remy Martin.
Bai Zhi-sheng the 55-year-old Chairman of Dynasty Fine Wines was in Bordeaux in June 2011 to visit Vinexpo, and also to present information about China in general, and his company in particular, at the BEM Wine MBA 10th Anniversary Seminar that was held on 17th June.
He spoke to Meininger’s Wine Business International through a translator about his company’s interest in exports.
Meininger’s: You have a background in politics and law. How did you go from this into wine?
Bai: This is a positive sign of China’s political change, of the modernisation, the improvement and the opening up of China. The political situation worked to push or pull people into new sectors, to help build the commercial sectors for China. Wine is actually an old industry, but it’s a new business. I am very happy to have the opportunity to move into a consumer based business.
Meininger’s: What are your export strategies, or your export plans for the future?
Bai: The first strategy is to export premium and high quality wine to let the whole world know that China can produce quality wine.
Meininger’s: What are your target markets?
Bai: The first one would be the American market. We’re also working on Europe.
Meininger’s: Do you have perception barriers to overcome when you go to new markets like the US or do you find people are very open to the idea of wines from China?
Bai: Definitely there are barriers on importing wine to this market. The first thing is they don't know about China, they don't know Chinese can make quality wine. The second thing is the Chinese wineries have not done enough promotion, so we’re working hard on that. For Dynasty, we will definitely be learning from the French and other wine making countries in order to raise the quality, to improve the quality of wine and for the export market.
Meininger’s: How do people inside China, view Chinese wines?
Bai: Actually it is a very good question. In my teaching I ask this a lot. The mass market choice of the wine consumer in China is still Chinese wine. Only very people are actually looking at high end, imported wine. So the local market is still mainly Chinese [wine].
