From the dusty vineyards of China’s outback to its chic metropolitan bars, women are at the forefront of the country’s increasingly vibrant wine scene, spurring innovation at every stage of the production — and consumption — process.
Helan Qingxue sent shockwaves through the industry in 2011 when it produced the first Chinese wine to win top honours at the industry’s most prestigious competition, even provoking unsubstantiated claims of fraud.
Over a decade later, Zhang is one of many Chinese women internationally recognised for their boutique, world-class bottles, as the fledgling sector continues to evolve.
“It’s a very strong female-dominated industry here,” Chinese wine expert Fongyee Walker told AFP.
“I don’t think there’s been any statistics done. But when I think about a lot of China’s most famous wineries, they’re run by women.”
That’s true in Zhang’s home region, northern Ningxia, where tens of thousands of hectares of vines have been nestled into the terracotta earth beneath the Helan mountain range over the last few decades.
Aside from Helan Qingxue, many of its best-known producers — Silver Heights, Kanaan Winery, Jade Vineyard — are women-led.
“There are more and more excellent female winemakers (worldwide) now,” Zhang said as she showed AFP around the winery’s cool, dim cellar.
“But it’s very interesting in Ningxia… Female owners and winemakers, female marketing staff and female receptionists probably make up more than 60 percent (of the workforce), so this proportion is quite large.”
The Chinese industry’s youth has helped women get a foothold, compared to more established wine-producing countries.
In the West, the sector “is very much dominated by male (figures) because it’s a traditional industry”, said Walker.
“For China, wine is not a traditional industry… It is a very safe sphere to open a company in if you’re a woman.”
In Ningxia, enthusiastic state support for the sector has meant an abundance of opportunities for anyone interested.
Zhang met her co-founders, former officials, when they worked together in local government.
When the two men asked Zhang — then still in her twenties — to be a winemaker for their retirement passion project, she agreed on the condition they send her abroad to study.
Many other young women did similarly, said Zhang, and when they returned, were among the best qualified to take advantage as the domestic wine scene picked up pace.
Silver Heights’ Emma Gao was one of the first Chinese women to obtain a degree in oenology. These days, her wines are served by President Xi Jinping to European leaders at state dinners.
Gao was sent to France’s Bordeaux wine region by her father, who founded the vineyard.
“I think China is very tolerant of women, and we’re even seeing a little bit of yin (the feminine force) flourishing and yang (the masculine) declining,” Gao laughed.
