We have all been barraged with article after article about wine consumption in China, their unfathomable potential, and China being the apparent savior of the global wine industry’s glut. Don’t get me wrong, I do buy into the future of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) being the most substantial part of global economic growth, of which wine is a small but significant piece. But for those that think it’s really further on than it is… well, you need to be patient. Doing business in China is challenging (the running joke in the wine biz is that any exporting company who tells you they are making money in wine in mainland China is lying) and rumors are indeed rampant that the amount of Château Lafite Rothschild, the leading prestige wine and preferred 1^st growth of China, consumed annually in Shanghai and Beijing supersedes production! Nevertheless, and in spite of problems and hiccups, China and specifically Shanghai remain both alluring and ample in opportunity for wine. Continue reading »

The wine industry has been going back and forth on this for years. The beverage category that pioneered its life with Orson Welles claiming that we ‘serve no wine before its time’ has gone back and forth as to whether their market base is older (baby boomers and empty nesters) or younger (millennials or those Gen Xer’s), aficionados (those who read the Wine Spectator) or ‘every person’ (those who read Redbook or Family Circle) or… men or women. And it seemingly changes like the weather in Baltimore (if you wait for five minutes…)! Continue reading »