John Wang, the beverage manager for Conard Hangzhou and Senior Academician in Hiton GC&M wine academy, talks about sommelier’s life, wine industry and challenges faced in China. 

Beginning with sommelier’s life, his/her typical working day is of receiving wine cellar management, putting utensils in place and cleaning wine equipment and inventory. Sommeliers need to multi-task. There are a lot of things which will come on the spot and one has to be ready for it. There is no weekend for sommeliers. A good sommelier is one who is passionate, modest, innovative, have ethics, respect others and has perfect salesmanship.

Talking about challenges in this business, most guests want to bring their own wine to the restaurant assuming that hotel wine is very expensive. Guests would like to spend more money on food and not on beverages. Looking at it statistically, beverage revenue covers only 10% or less than 10% of the bill per customer. With all these challenges and looking at current trends in the wine industry, there is some movement in this industry which is bound to happen. In tier 1 city, the wine industry has progressed extensively. There is an increase in the number of knowledgeable sommeliers, boutique wine importers, and wine lovers. ‘Wine by the Glass’ program is getting popular. Marketing tactics are getting more matured and focused rather than general marketing. In China, for sure, tier 2 and 3 cities will follow these patterns, for wine to have its own place in the market.

You also need to track the sales record with your competitors which makes your restaurant different from others. Social media feedback is equally important. ‘At our restaurant, we have one sommelier in our restaurant out of 2 sommeliers in the whole city! We have a beautiful wine list with large selections in WBG, fine wine, exclusive wines.’

Good wine regions in China are Ningxia, Shandong, Shanxi, Xinjiang has the same latitude as Bordeaux. There is a high possibility of Ningxia being the next wine region star of China. This has been possible only because of its laws, statutes, and codes which have been spelled out in detail along with the kind of technology and equipment used in the process of wine.