Posts Tagged“china”

New York Wines in China: Final Thoughts… and Our First Orders

Leaving Shanghai

When a California winery opens its doors for business, they can sweep their arms over the map of the entire United States and know that they are welcome in any of the fifty states. They aren’t the “local” wine, it’s a given that the wine will be competently made and meet the consumer’s expectations. Indeed, the majority of consumer’s expectations are actually defined by the profile of California wines — and it’s when East Coast wineries try too hard to be like their California rivals is when they fail themselves and their customers. When a New York winery opens its doors for…

New York Wine in China: Day 2

Nan Tong City

We learned the first day that Taipei is considered a more sophisticated market these days, moreso than Shanghai because they buy more and and more diverse wines, but they buy almost exclusively on “score.” Clearly that’s a generalization, and readers of this site probably would argue that doesn’t seem like sophistication, but this is what we’re dealing with here. On a visit to the Shanghai Wine Exchange we discovered what the high net worth Chinese is doing with his relatively new money — investing in trophy wines, but almost nothing else of any lesser stature. We’ve been trying to build a…

New York Wine in China: Day 1

zone

This was not at all the culture shock I was expecting as most of our group arrived at Shanghai Pudong Airport early midday Tuesday. This first day was to get acclimated to the drastic time difference - we lost exactly twelve hours on the way over, so dinner for us was around six in the morning. The city is a stunning mix of hyper-modern and classical, with no sign of the overcrowding one might think exists. Streets are wide and fast, populated by an odd mix of scooters, mini-bikes, bicycles, container trucks, and Audis…lots and lots of Audis, as well…

New York Wines in China: Opportunities, Challenges and a Unique Education

Editor’s Note: Tomorrow, Jim Silver, general manager of Peconic Bay Winery and Empire State Cellars, will fly to China as part of a delegation set to represent and eventually sell New York wines there. While he’s there, he will be publishing a travel diary here on the New York Cork Report. I asked him to introduce that diary before he left. Bloomberg reports that the Chinese Gross Domestic Product grew 7.6% in the third quarter of this year over last year. The same report considers that a “drag from inventory restocking…” One has to wonder what they would consider robust growth. Sparing…

New York State Wine Outlet to Open in Shanghai, China

The first pallet of New York wine being prepped for shipment to Shanghai, China

Over the last 12-18 months the United Kingdom has emerged a potentially important market for New York — and other East Coast — wines. In fact, delegations from the Finger Lakes and Long Island are there right now for the 2012 London International Wine Fair. Now, more New York wineries than ever are looking even further east for new markets — all the way to China. A handful of wineries, including Channing Daughters Winery, Lieb Family Cellars and Pindar Vineyards, already sell or have sold wine in China. But, later today, Empire State Cellars, the New York-only tasting room and shop in Riverhead,…