China: The People's Republic of Wine

(WSJ) -  A FEW YEARS AGO, over a glass of wine in Bordeaux's Brasserie l'Orléans, one of the city's négociants told me that anyone who is serious about fine wine should be visiting China at least twice a year. Fast forward to today and it isn't uncommon to hear wine professionals talk about relocating to Asia.

Such has been the explosion of interest in wine drinking across China (figures from Vinexpo, the international wine and spirits exhibition, suggest it is now the world's largest consumer of red wine) that Beijing, Chengdu and Shanghai are now firmly on the wine route.

One person who has witnessed this phenomenal growth firsthand is Yang Lu, one of China's most respected sommeliers. Born in the small city of Karamay in Xinjiang province but raised in Shanghai, Mr. Lu won a string of awards as sommelier at the Peninsula hotel in Shanghai before moving to his present position as group wine director for Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts based in Hong Kong.

It's been four years since he introduced the wines of Burgundy onto his list at the Peninsula. At the time, Mr. Lu says, many people said it was impossible to sell Burgundy in China. The wines of the Côte d'Or are now so popular among Chinese collectors that prices for top estates such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, Henri Jayer and Armand Rousseau have eclipsed their counterparts in Bordeaux.

But tastes are evolving and Mr. Lu says it is only a matter of time before the other wine regions of the world are collected in China.

"Everyone is buying as much Burgundy as they can," he says as we sit overlooking Victoria Harbour. "The mistake that a lot of Bordeaux people have made is that they think they are too smart. They think that people on this side of the world are rich and can spend like there is no tomorrow but they are wrong."