Bilingual ‘tool’ demystifies wine tasting

The Australian Grape and Wine Authority (AGWA) has developed  a bilingual tasting “wheel” which translates wine tasting notes into terms that could be more easily understood by the Chinese palate.

Does this taste of strawberry or yangmei to you?

Although it won’t be launched until August of this year, the “tasting wheel” has identified appropriate Chinese terns that fit in with popular wine descriptions, such as yangmei – a Chinese fruit equivalent to a strawberry or dragon fruit to be equated with apple, in order for regular wine drinkers to better describe how a wine tastes to them.

AGWA has funded the Chinese Lexicon Project which was carried out by researchers at the University of South Australia’s Ehrenberg-Bass Institute for Marketing Science and led by Dr Armando Corsi, together with Dr Justin Cohen and Prof Larry Lockshin.

Once completed it will be distributed through Wine Australia’s China office, used throughout its Chinese education program and given to Australian wineries who host Chinese visitors. It is believed that it is the first endeavour in the world speficially targeted to how Chinese drinkers can relate to their wine experiences.

Corsi commented, “The findings will allow us to help Australian wine businesses choose the most appropriate Chinese descriptors to match the sensory profile of their wines.”

“This means they can make the strategic decision to be more Chinese-centric and modify their back label information, tasting notes and other collateral in various retail formats.

“It’s hard to describe a wine tasting like a blueberry if you’ve never eaten one befpre, and we’ve identified that a blackberry can be compared to a Chinese hawthorn,” he continued.

China is one of the world’s biggest consumers of wine, with approximately 38m drinkers according to the Chinese Business Review with red wine contributing nearly 62 per cent of the total wines sales by volume.

Australian wine has become increasingly popular and is projected to be more even so, since the Free Trade Agreement between the two countries.

In an earlier db article, Langton’s co-founder, Andrew Caillard MW described a huge opportunity for Australian wine in China while a recent collaboration between Australia’s retail giant, Lion and Jebsen Fine Wines will see an influx of Australian fine wine into the country.