Several Scoring Institutions Are Competing in China

2018-01-24 09:13 WBO Global

Write | WBO Morris

Translate and Edit | WBO Kiwi

 

China market has attracted wines and producers all over the world. That’s far from enough, many wine related industries have also been stationed in China too. Initially, wine training institutions, such as WSET, ISG and CAFA, were entered, and then many wine scoring institutions were concentrated in China in these months, trying to find excellent wines for local market.

RGMW studio gives pricing suggestions based on quality

Robert Geddes, a MW from Australia, set up a studio named RGMW in China last year. Robert is the third MW in Australia, and he wrote the book Australian Wine Vintages.

 

The most important task in RGMW studio is to bring a 100 point scoring system for wines sold in China.

  

Speaking of why he set up the studio in China, Robert pointed out three reasons:

 

1. the attraction of prosperous wine market

2. the lack of international wine opinion leaders

3. more wine exhibitions and wine competitions need evaluation institutions.

 

 

Robert said, China wine market is different from anywhere else in the world. I set up a studio in Shanghai, hoping to share my knowledge and experience for wine industry, which can boost the development of Chinese wine industry, especially wine culture.

 

It is reported that Robert's studio will not only focus on wine evaluation, but will also give pricing suggestions for wine producers and importers. Robert evaluation team includes winemakers, wine critics, MW and so on.

 

Black Wine Guide , charging consumers to ensure fairness

 

Jean-Marc NOLANT (known as Angry Horse in Weibo), a French wine business insider who has been working for many years in China, also planed his Black Wine Guide with his partner Xiao Ning in October last year. The Black Wine Guide plan aimed at judging and scoring for wines in China market, then write into the guide book.

 

Xiao Ning, one of the founders of this project, introduced to WBO: the guide book takes 20 points system from Europe, and all the wine that scoring higher than 13 points can be selected. There is no upper limit or lower limit. 

 

 

It is worth mentioning that scoring of the guide and the later wine show do not charge to the upstream. Xiao Ning said that publication of the guide is a necessary investment and the book is targeted to sold to consumers. The wine show sells tickets to consumers too.

 

Our plan is to make the money from consumers in the future to ensure that the score is absolutely public. Because of information asymmetry, many consumers always feel uncertain at buying wines. But there are many people who are willing to spend money on quality wines, and Black Wine Guide platform solves this pain point.

 

Alton judge both by taste and artificial intelligence technology

 

The Alton wines Institute, a scoring institution that entered China in 2016, created the overall scoring system called Alton MC Ratings.

 

According an Alton director, the scoring system is judged through 6 aspects: Taste, Terroir, Viticulture, Vinification, Vintage, and Value, referred to as “2T4V”.

 

“The advantage of this scoring system is that it is a comprehensive evaluation of wine in verious ways, not only by the human tongue feel. People's feelings are subjective, health condition of wine critics, weather of the day, these factors may affect the final results”, said the director.

 

To make the score accurate enough, Alton MC Ratings has also developed an automatic wine scoring technology based on artificial intelligence and deep learning robot, with a view to bring more complete and objective wine scoring results.

 

China rating standard made by Chinese indicators

 

China's wine professional association is also involved in the field of wine evaluation. China National Food Industry Association Wine and Fruit Wine Expert Committee launched China Rating System for Global Wine, and the assembly of 27 wine critics (including the four MWs), to assess wines.

 

One of the founders of the global wine appraisal system in China, Pan Yunkang, pointed out that the whole score will be formulated by Chinese drinking habits and the habit of wine pairing. For example, Chinese consumers may have a higher preference for wine body than aroma, and this system will reduce the scoring proportion of aroma to avoid unfair judgement.

 

 

“Another feature, that is, this system sets 10 sensory indicators and subdivides them. The advantage is that in the face of two bottles of wines in the same point, we can tell the the differences to consumers”, said Pan.

 

The localization of wine evaluation institutions must equip with “Chinese characteristics”

 

Why are these wine evaluation institutions competing in China's localization? Wang Dehui, wine marketing observer analyzed that wine evaluation institutions are developing along with the maturation of wine market. When the market becomes more mature, the function and value of wine evaluation will be bigger.

 

After all, wine is a special commodity with large amount of professional information, and consumers in any country are not experts, which is also a huge opportunity for such institutions.

 

How does the wine evaluation institution develop in China for further steps? Wang suggested: first of all, the wine evaluation institutions must be professional, and the second must meet the consumption characteristics of the Chinese market.

 

Do not just bring foreign methods into Chinese market, due to the food culture and consumption culture difference.

 

Dong Shuguo, a another observer in wine industry, pointed out that after the import of wine into the China, the wine culture also followed. China’s short of wine culture among common consumers, made it hard for them to judge wines by themselves.

 

“China should have its own scoring system in the future, so that the world's wine producers can make wine following this standard. This is what we are going to do in the next step”, Dong said, “China is a big market for wines. In fact, many foreign wineries are now making their wines according to the characteristics of Chinese taste.”