THE most recent developments in Asia’s wine industry have been a reaction to the pandemic. Wine trends, which vary by country and region, have much to do with home consumption trends, severity of restrictions, and the overall economic and political mood of the country, says the first Asian Master of Wine, Jeannie Cho Lee.

An award-winning author, wine critic, judge and educator, Korean-born and Hong Kong-based Lee is the Technical Committee Chairwoman for the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) Wine Pinnacle Awards 2022 (WPA). After a hiatus the last two years, this second edition will be held from Oct 28 to Nov 1, 2022.  

Lee believes that in Hong Kong and China, there is a definite downward trend in overall wine imports due to severe dining restrictions as well as curbs on movement and travel. She points out: “At the same time, home consumption and online sales were rising but not enough to make up for trade sales (i.e. restaurants and hotels).”

In March 2022, Euromonitor International reported that Hong Kong’s wine market size shrank 31.8 per cent from US$1.3 billion in 2019 to US$916.1 million in 2020. 

Lee also observes that fine wines (via online markets) have not been as severely affected by the pandemic and many wine auction houses are reporting growth over the past few years. “In some markets such as South Korea, wine consumption has actually risen over the past few years as consumers are finding it easy to order online and enjoy wine at home,” she adds.

Based on the wine consumer research by London-based Wine Intelligence, South Korea’s wine drinkers have increased from 10.2 million in 2017 to 12.6 million in 2022, due to changing habits during the Covid-19 pandemic and more health-conscious younger residents who deem wine as more sophisticated compared to traditional drinks like soju and beer. 

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Climate change and sustainability

Meanwhile, climate change remains an important topic among wine producers around the world. Lee says: “This is a huge topic to tackle for the wine industry. Numerous symposiums have been held to try to find solutions and answers to some of the most pressing problems, but we are just scratching the surface. Much more needs to be done. Climate change concerns everyone inhabiting this planet, but especially those in the agricultural and wine industries where their livelihood is directly affected by varying weather conditions.”

The WPA’s Wine Industry Symposium on Oct 31 and Nov 1 will feature a panel discussion in which industry leaders from France, California and Australia talk about how they are tackling the climate change issue. The speakers include Guillaume Barraud from Gerard Bertrand, Oz Clarke from the UK, and Thomas Brzostowski from the Nature Conservancy.

Sustainability is also in the forefront of wine regions around the world as each country tries to tackle climate change and environmental degradation. Lee says: “Being an agricultural product, regional wine bodies are very much aware of how their regulations in farming can affect the environment. I cannot think of any well-known wine region that is not implementing sustainability in their viticultural agenda. Of course, there are specific wineries that are going above and beyond their region’s recommendations regarding sustainability and implementing more stringent measures to protect and care for the environment long term.” 

What to expect at the RWS Wine Pinnacle Awards 2022 

The Wine Pinnacle Awards (WPA), the world’s first wine awards based solely on nominations, recognise the finest wines and wine professionals from around the world. It represents the opinions of 61 jury members from around the globe including Masters of Wine, Master Sommeliers, wine professionals and luminaries. 

The Technical Committee members comprise five international wine experts: Jeannie Cho Lee (Hong Kong), Andreas Larsson (Sweden), Doug Frost (the US), Kenichi Ohashi (Japan), and Oz Clarke (the UK). They are responsible for establishing the award categories and overseeing the nomination process to ensure there is focus on diversity, quality and merit. 

Lee explains: “From the beginning we had a clear vision of the categories we wanted to judge, how we wanted to position WPA to be unique by highlighting categories that are not often found in wine competitions like mature wines. We wanted the jury members to be of the highest calibre, represent the global wine community and also have abundant ongoing experience tasting the wines in the categories we identified.”  

This year’s 18 inclusive award categories include ready-to-drink ‘Mature Wines’, ‘Best Recent Releases’ and ‘Best Friend of the Earth’. Two new categories: ‘Comfort Wine’ and ‘Pandemic Hero’ were added to address the pandemic and how it affected wine consumption.

“Social and travel restrictions over the past few years meant that more people were enjoying wine at home. We wanted to know what the working-from-home wine professionals were enjoying and finding pleasure in during these challenging times. Comfort wines were defined as more affordable, easy-to-enjoy wines that bring everyday comfort and pleasure,” says Lee.

She continues: “The pandemic hero was added to applaud a wine professional who has contributed the most to their community and industry during the height of the pandemic period. These have been challenging times and there were numerous acts of generosity, kindness and love - we believe this should be appreciated and celebrated by creating an award category that acknowledges specific people’s contributions.”

WPA also features wine-pairing dinners with menus from world-famous celebrity chefs. Wrapping up the five-day event is the Wine Pinnacle Awards Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony on Nov 1.