Produced by Wine Australia, the Australian Wine Flavours Card is a one page tool to help Chinese customers understand and enjoy local drops.
Based on research by the University of South Australia linking an Australian wine descriptor with an equivalent taste identified by Chinese consumers, the Card was developed for use by Australian wineries at their cellar door, as well as by retail wine outlets and restaurants.
Wine Australia CEO Andreas Clark said the Australian Wine Flavours Card presents an opportunity for the Australian wine community to better engage with their Chinese customers.
“China is a key market for Australian wines and to be able to talk with these customers about the sensory aspects of our wine in a more relevant way will help our community’s competitiveness,” said Clark.
“With the Australian Wine Flavours Card we can now help guide Chinese customers through the tasting process by using these identified terms, which will help the sector engage more effectively and make drinking our wines even more enjoyable.”
According to Wine Australia global knowledge manager, Anne Duncan, the research project aimed to identify the terms that Chinese consumers use when describing Australian wine.
“Currently, wine is predominantly described using English sensory terms that may lack meaning for Chinese customers. The research helped to bridge this gap by asking regular drinkers of imported wine in China to describe Australian wine during blind tastings. The same wines were also described by sensory experts using common Australian wine terms and the descriptions were then linked.
“For example, if an Australian winemaker was to describe a Cabernet as having hints of blackberry preserve, the Card shows that a Chinese customer would more easily identify this flavour as dried Chinese hawthorn. The winemaker could then suggest this to the customer on tasting their wine to facilitate better engagement.”
China continues to be a market of growth for Australian wine, with the recent Wine Australia Export Report showing that the value of Australian wine exports to China grew 66 percent to $370 million in the 12 months to December 2015.
Australian wine businesses can register their interest to receive a free copy of the Australian Wine Flavours Card here.