Blend of the best(1)
Fongyee Walker's command of Chinese has been a key to her success in the wine business. Mark Graham / For China Daily
Husband and wife team helps Chinese people understand what wines are about
In-depth knowledge of wine and a total command of spoken, and written, Chinese are proving to be formidable business tools for Fongyee Walker.
The former Cambridge University lecturer, whose mother is originally from the northeastern Chinese city of Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang province, has a thriving, Beijing-based operation that specializes in educating people about wine.
Dragon Phoenix Wine Consulting, which is run with her husband Edward Ragg, who is also from an academic background, offers wine-training classes, translation services, wine sourcing and restaurant wine-list recommendations.
"Business right now is crazy busy," says Walker, who travels the length and breadth of the company conducting courses and seminars in wine appreciation.
"Our main business is holding wine courses, talking to wineries hoping to enter China, and conducting market research. I do an awful lot of work with translation because in general wine terms are so badly translated.
"I love it. A lot of people I work with are surprised with the translations I come up with because my background is in poetry. My job is to make it sound as good in Chinese as it does in English; the one that used to kill me was reading that syrah was spicy hot, like chili heat. Since when did you have a wine that had chili in it? What people had read was that it had black fruit flavors, with lots of spice - what they meant was cloves and cinnamon, not chili.
