Patrick Hughes, a Seattle resident who’s worked for Montrose, another importerdistributor in China, says he discovered that even Chinese consumers who weren’t initially sold on wine for its taste seemed to enjoy it for its ceremony. Hughes worked last year at Montrose’s flagship retail wineshop, in Beijing, which was laid out not by country and appellation, as are most U.S. wine stores, but by occasion — with birthday wines in one aisle, business wines in another, romantic-occasion wines in another, and so on. He says he saw plenty of “wrinkled-up watched very intently and inquisitively. She asked if she could give the corkscrew a whirl and open a bottle herself. She struggled initially, but then pulled out the cork. She was so happy to pour her first glass from a bottle she had opened all by herself.” noses and puckered lips” after Chinese customers took their first-ever sips of wine but that he also noticed that “the intricacies of all that goes with the world of wine seemed to be very appealing to the Chinese.”

Like, for instance, that cork thing. “One of my favorite memories is of opening a bottle of Francis Ford Coppola Zinfandel,” Hughes says. watched very intently and inquisitively. She asked if she could give the corkscrew a whirl and open a bottle herself. She struggled initially, but then pulled out the cork. She was so happy to pour her first glass from a bottle she had opened all by herself.”