Sleek and efficient, Wuhan Tianhe International Airport is a breeze to transit through.
Last week, I visited four “secondary” cities in the People’s Republic of China for wine tastings with 300 to 400 people in each venue to promote fine wine. I was amazed by the turnout and energy of the experience! With China’s biggest wine company COFCO, we went down the coast, starting from Dalian and ending in Hangzhou with Jinan and Wuhan in between. We traveled by plane and bullet train to each of the cities that has an average population of 10 million.
The journey through these cities left a strong impression as we passed through so many expansive new airports and train stations. The Chinese-made bullet train traveled at a top speed of 307 kilometers per hour and flew through the rural countryside, which is followed by countless new cities with their shiny, newly built skyscrapers and freshly painted and landscaped roads. It’s the newness of the endlessly modern infrastructure that amazes me. This is a country living the future today.
China is now the world’s most attractive wine market. There is a growing taste for fine wine even in secondary cities.
The bright and young wine merchants and consumers at each stop were equally inspiring. Aside from taking selfies and photos with me and the dozen or so wine producers on the tour to post on their social media — primarily WeChat — the consumers were also thrilled to taste the wines and understand the greatness and uniqueness of each wine. For them, it is much more than just a beverage. It’s a symbol of the sophisticated and luxury part of Western culture that so many of them are embracing at the moment. As they travel more to North America and Europe, they are drinking more fine wine with each experience, regardless if they are in Rome or San Francisco.
It reminded me of what the great tech magnate Jack Ma told me a year ago at a private lunch. He explained that there are now more than 330 million people in the middle-class population in China, and they were growing in numbers every day. “We need to bring wine culture to China together,” he said. “We need to teach China about wine.”
In the midst of the four master tastings in China last week, I felt like I did just what Alibaba’s genius told me. As for the upcoming weeks, I look forward to more tastings such as Bordeaux Confidential in Beijing and Great Wines of the Andes in Shanghai. The future of China as the world’s greatest wine market is now and I am happy to be part of it. — CEO/Editor James Suckling
The JamesSuckling.com team also made a quick trip to Alibaba Group’s campus in Hangzhou. There are plenty of exciting news and projects in the works.
Video highlights of our master tastings in China:
