Have Hawke’s Bay wine, will travel – by Chinese taxi

As more and more Chinese are enjoying Hawke’s Bay wine, and the number of local wineries exporting to the vast country continues to grow, the Hawke’s Bay regional wine organisation is gearing itself up in support.

In the New Year, a Chinese film crew will be in the region shooting wine and tourism footage to be shown on interactive screens in 60,000 taxis in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

The crew, lead by Chantal Chi, one of China’s leading wine writers and a driving force behind creating a better understanding of wine by Chinese trade and consumers, is to be hosted by Hawke’s Bay Winegrowers Inc.

In addition to the film footage, Ms Chi will be sourcing material for her various publishing outlets including daily newspaper and wine magazines, websites and blogs.

Later in January 2012, Debra Meiburg MW, voted ‘most influential wine journalist in Hong Kong’ in 2007 and the first Asia-based Master of Wine, will be hosted by HBWG and will meet with a number of local wineries.

HBWG is also organising for local wines to showcase the region at a function for the Auckland Chinese business community in March 2012.

“At last count, we had 18 Hawke’s Bay wineries exporting to Hong Kong and 23 to China, and we know from research that Asia, and in particular, China has a growing desire to buy our wines. We are working hard to better understand this market and developing relationships that work well both ways,” says Lyn Bevin, HBWG executive officer.

In November this year, a page outlining the strengths of Hawke’s Bay as a New Zealand wine region was translated into Chinese and is now available on the HBWG website winehawkes.bay.co.nz

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