The Tastemakers

By staff reporter PENELOPE COLVILLE

Jim Boyce aims to boost confidence among China's growing number of wine drinkers.

JIM Boyce granted me an interview in a bar at 6 p.m., in between tasting a flight of 13 liquors at 4 p.m. and getting ready for yet another interview at 8 p.m. The first thing he did was recommend I try a white bourbon. Like they say, it's a tough job but someone has to do it. Boyce sips and scribbles for Beijing Boyce, his nightlife blog, and Grape Wall of China, a website he runs with a host of other contributors from the wine industry. His real work is brand consulting and market research however, with a specialty in natural resources, but wine takes up much of his spare time. My sense is that for Boyce the landscape of Chinese wine seems to be many things – a national coming-of-age drama for an industry, an international cast of characters, a struggle of market forces, treasure rediscovered, and a plot begging for the emergence of heroes. That would explain why readers like his style of sharing what he's learned, as he learns it.

Boyce was anxious to clarify that he is not a sommelier but rather on a particular, self-defined mission in China. "Most Chinese are not experienced wine drinkers – yet," he points out. The brander and bon vivant wants to cultivate the consumer. He is sensitive to the economic pressures that stymie improvement in the product. The potential he sees is not in the growth of the market; the domestic market for both imported and made-in-China wines is already huge. It is the growth in consumer confidence and sophistication that he is actively promoting, and he's cheering on Chinese vintners on the same wavelength.

This Canadian from an obscure town in central Canada worked in branding and marketing for the European Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan from 2002 to 2004, and later for the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, building up their communications department over three years. He has a good enough reputation now to rely on consulting to pay the rent. The attention he focuses on wine could be described as a passion, but the professional in him doesn't switch off. He can't help but make a careful analysis of the conditions, the players and the wine drinkers themselves, and his Grape Wall of China blog has an array of industry insiders contributing.

"The key to wine purchasing in China is not the taste," he states flatly and sums up the state of affairs for me: "The older generation believes in the health benefits of a glass of wine a day – that kind of thing. The younger urbanites drink wine to be thought of as worldly. The moneyed class visibly spends lavish sums on wine in the expectation the price tag is what will ultimately impress the guest. In short, wine prices relate to advertising and status." So the first exciting prospect is developing the Chinese palate, and it will be a good day in Boyce's book when more Chinese consumers say, "I'm buying that wine because I like it."

Market forces are currently making it difficult for wine producers to care about taste or keep an eye on the "quality" prize. Technicians know how to make better wines here, Boyce insists, but have no incentives, for wine will disappear from shelves as is, and the profits are too tempting for owners not to go with the flow. In the past 20 years the Chinese wine industry has exploded, making leading names out of Dynasty, Changyu and Great Wall. As a result, there simply aren't enough grapes in the country to satisfy national demand.