Alibaba Group, the world’s biggest e-commerce company, officially announced the launch of its September 9 Wine Day on August 30 in Shanghai. The event, which is already tapped to become China’s biggest online wine and spirits festival, is expected to attract 100 million consumers to shop over 100,000 wines and spirits from 50 countries.

More than 300 journalists and guests attended the launch event including Alibaba Group CEO, Tmall executives, leading wineries, top Chinese wine importers, international wine critic James Suckling, and former NBA player Yao Ming.

“100 million is just a beginning, our future goal is to have consumers around the globe to take part in our Wine Day event,” says Fang Wai, general manager of Tmall’s FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) Department. In addition to online wine sales, Tmall will work with 5,000 offline wine shops to promote sales on September 9, he added.

Alibaba Group CEO Zhang Yong further emphasized that the upcoming Wine Day is not about a big e-commerce company launching a sales blitz, rather it’s about promoting wine culture. “By doing Wine Day, we wanted to use Internet as a platform for Chinese consumers to really understand global wine culture. This is why we are doing Wine Day”, he explains.

CEO of JamesSuckling.com and international wine critic James Suckling was invited as honorable guest and gave a keynote speech. Earlier last month, JamesSuckling.com announced its cooperation with Tmall, Alibaba’s retail platform, to provide exclusive contents for the September 9 Wine Day.

In his speech, James looked back at his personal experieces with China wine market, dating back to 1988, almost three decades ago as a young wine journalist, visiting Tsingdao and Tianjin. He aso shared his thoughts on the challenges of creating a real wine market in China, and how e-commerce can help.

Photos from top to bottom: Zhang Yong, CEO of Alibaba Group, and James Suckling, CEO of JamesSuckling.com; Fang Wai, general manager of Tmall’s FMCG Department, giving a speech on the importance of Tmall Wine Day; James speaking to audidence about his personal experiences with China market; group photo of Alibaba executives and guests; Tmall Fang Wai, COFCO general manager Castle Li and James Suckling toasting to Wine Day during dinner

Below is the full speech James gave at the launch event.

Hello. I am James Suckling and CEO of JamesSuckling,com. Each year my website reviews 10,000 wines from around the world. I have been a wine critic for 35 years. I have professionally tasted in my life more than 200,000 wines and drank about 50,000 bottles during the same period.

I have been waiting a long time for Wine Day in China and it’s not just September 9 in a few days. I have been waiting for decades for Wine Day and I am going to tell you why.

I first came to China in 1988 on assignment for the American wine magazine The Wine Spectator. I came to China to explore the wine world as the international press was writing stories about the new interest in China for making and drinking wine. What I found was a dynamic country in constant change and wine production and consumption just in its infancy. Wine was still something few people knew about. Even the farmers who I met growing grapes for wine production near Tianjin and Qingdao did not really understand what wine was. They certainly didn’t like drinking it and preferred beer or baijiu when I celebrated the harvest with them. But there was something special about wine in China almost three decades ago – even something magical.

It took me almost 22 years to come back to China as a journalist and a wine critic. I came because I heard so much about the Chinese market. How China was the great new wine market of the world, particularly for expensive French wines. According to headlines, Lafite was selling most of its producing in China and the same was for many other chateaux. I had to see if it were all true.

Yet the reality seemed much different than the headlines after I spent time researching the market. Yes. A tiny percentage of the wine market was buying and consuming some of the most expensive bottles in the world, but I found a real wine market still really didn’t exist compared to such markets as North America or Europe. And I couldn’t understand how a real wine market could be created with the vast geography of China and segmented communication on wine. China is a giant country so how could wine producers and wine merchants reach consumers? How could Chinese consumers buy wine and drink wine, especially good wine? In most cases, they can’t run down to their local market or wine shop and buy bottle. In addition, how do they learn to drink wine when most of the communication is about education and not wine appreciation. People interested in wine need to appreciate wine and that means buying and drinking wine.

The is what Wine Day and Tmall on September 9 can do to help China take its rightful place in the wine world today as the world’s most important wine market. Wine day makes it easy for to understand about buying good wine, drinking good wine and learning about wine. This is why I personally support Wine Day and my company JamesSuckling.com is a strong supporter of the event and Tmall. It’s also why my slogan for wine in China is “Drink with me.” Buy wine. Drink wine. And Learn About wine. It’s easy. And it’s fun. Thank you.

Alibaba Announces Official Launch of September 9 Wine Day in Shanghai