Dynasty’s chairman discusses the future of Chinese wine(2)
Meininger's: In your speech at the BEM Wine MBA Anniversary, you mentioned that wine education is going to be very important inside China. What sort of strategies are you doing inside China about raising consumption levels?
Bai: We are doing three things now. The first thing is using our new chateau, to build a wine museum in order to provide education and opportunity for people to learn. The second thing, they are working with different universities in China, to provide programs to teach the on-trade and off-trade people. The third thing is to use media, like TV and free media. We also invite specialists to provide seminars, give speeches and talks and to provide education opportunities. China really needs to borrow French technology and knowledge and experience in wine making.
Meininger’s: The chateau that you've built is very spectacular and it's also very classically French – it mimics Versailles – and I was wondering why didn't you build something that is more classically Chinese?
Bai: This was a humble decision because we believe and we know that all wine actually originated from Europe and is very much related to the culture in Europe. The chateau is one we that we can relate to it. If Dynasty produced spirits that were made in China, then we would definitely have built something Chinese in structure, to represent Chinese spirits.
Meininger’s: Much of China is planted with French varieties like Merlot and Cabernet. Is that because consumers like those varieties best, or is it because viticulturalists have determined that those are the best varieties for the land that you’ve got?
Bai: The current Chinese wine consumer still needs a lot of education and promotion about varietals. Dynasty produced the first dry white wine for China. We are already move from producing dry white to dry red because of consumer demand, but based on the existing market situation, consumers still need a lot of education about varietals. The consumers still believe that French wine is the quality wine and the proper wine to drink so we still need to do a lot of marketing and promotion work for Chinese wine.
