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52 W i n e s & V i n e s J U n e 2 0 1 4 Red wines were most often identified as having flavors beyond most Western pal- ates: yangmei, dried Chinese hawthorne, dried Chinese red date, fresh wolf berry and dried wolf berry. "We can come up with a ter- minology that we can use in a Chinese market to describe wine," Cohen said. But if those terms were seldom heard in the exhibition halls of the Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Fair, the practice of refer- encing Asian fruit flavors isn't unusual in British Columbia, where the mother tongue of more than a tenth of the popu- lation is Asian—more than in any other part of Canada. Many aromatic white wines are described as having notes of starfruit or lychee; ice wine, an item long exported to Asia, is sometimes tipped as having notes of mandarin orange. Bearing in mind the balancing act wines need to do on the Chinese banquet table, however, British Columbia wine advisor David Scholefield believes a similar approach can be taken to red wines. "What's happening now in China mir- rors what happened in Japan a generation ago, when the first interest in wine was as a luxury gift and a prestige item," he said. "The wine phenomenon in China is about prestige and status and all that." He sees an opportunity to deepen con- sumers' connection—and knowledge—by suggesting pairings with traditional Chi- nese dishes rather than western pairings. He recently worked with Haywire Winery in Summerland, B.C., which produced a special bottling of its 2012 Pinot Noir for the 2014 lunar new year—the year of the horse, according to the Chinese calendar. The wine focuses on domestic Chinese consumers, with a label in red and gold and text noting the purity of the wine's production, the use of French oak and confining tasting notes to suggestions for pairing it with seared sablefish and soy sauce—or perhaps pork ribs and pepper sauce—descriptions aimed at resonating with the Asian palate. Time will tell if other wineries follow suit, but the move parallels a growing number of initiatives designed to broaden how consumers in Asia approach and engage with wine. With a new climate of restraint in China that frowns on con- spicuous consumption, and fear of counterfeits undermining con- fidence in external indicators of quality, Stephen Williams, man- aging director of the Antique Wine Co., believes an opportunity exists for educators to help consumers identify what wins wines marks of quality in the first place. Deeper engagement will not only help the upper end of the market, which con- tinues to view wine as a long-term invest- ment, but also the lower end of the market that's just whetting its palate. "We have a market that is now open to explore and discover quality, not blinded by brand," he said. The hope is that engagement will lead to broader horizons for China's emerging wine consumers, new discoveries and memories of favorite wines that will lead to repeat sales, both for immediate con- sumption and long-term cellaring. "Just leave them drinking; it doesn't matter what they match with. If they are happy, they continue, and that's enough." —Li Demei, Chinese Wine Association w w w . w i n e s a n d v i n e s . c o m MARKET DATA AND ANALYSIS Wineries DtC Shipments Off-Premise Sales Flash Sales WINES VINES ANALYTICS Market Research for Wineries and Suppliers S A L E S & M A R K E T I N G S A L E S & M A R K E T I N G