My Bond with Chinese Wines

Christelle Chene, from France, is international affairs director at Ningxia Xige Estate and French director at Ningxia Helan Mountains East Foothill Wine Education Institute, in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region. She has made it her mission to promote Chinese wines, in both the Chinese and international markets.

In 2007, I arrived in China to study the Chinese language at Sichuan University, in Chengdu, in Southwest China's Sichuan province, after having studied the language for two years in Paris. I had fallen in love with the Chinese language first, and, after one year in Chengdu, I had really fallen in love with China as a whole. So, I wanted to live permanently in Chengdu after receiving my bachelor's degree. Unfortunately, I had to go back to France at the end of 2008. But, in my mind, it was clear that I wanted to go back to China-as soon as possible.

In 2011, I was offered my first job opportunity in China, as wine and food manager for the French Aquitaine Region, whose capital is Bordeaux, based at its representative office in the French Consulate in Wuhan, in Central China's Hubei province. It was a wonderful opportunity to work in an amazing field that I was passionate about-wine.

After two years of promoting Bordeaux wines in China, I wanted to get more involved in the business side of the industry, so I started working for a Bordeaux wine merchant, as the Greater China brand ambassador and sales manager. In 2013, one of my first clients was Beijing Easy Cellar, whose CEO (chief executive officer) was Zhang Yanzhi, who would become CEO and founder-and my boss-of Ningxia Xige Estate.

Between 2013 and 2019, I worked for several French wine producers as their Greater China and Asia sales and marketing director, first in Wuhan, then in Beijing, and finally in Shenzhen, in South China's Guangdong province.

During the last eight years, I have been to many places in China, mostly for business meetings and promotional events. It has been a crazily busy life; my friends and family have often told me so. But I actually love it, because wine is a great medium; it has allowed me to meet so many people, discover so many places, and have an even deeper understanding of China's culture, history and different regional customs, and to practice Chinese and learn the local dialects and accents.

In China, relationships are of great importance, and that is one of the reasons I like working here so much. For business, you need to make friends first. Even if the cooperation doesn't work, you have made friends anyway. In Western countries, personal and professional lives are clearly separated, and I am not used to that. I think my personality fits China much better.

As surprising as it might sound to most people, in my heart, I feel China is my home, and when I go back to France, I feel like a foreigner. It is too long to explain all the reasons why. But I think this is part of the reason why after so many years of working for French companies, I started feeling like I was not doing enough for China.

Then I learned Zhang was founding an ambitious project, Ningxia Xige Estate. Zhang talked casually about the idea of me joining Xige Estate, to be the very first and only foreigner to promote Chinese wine in international markets.

So, in early 2018, I went to Wuzhong, a city in Ningxia, to visit Xige Estate while it was still under construction. It felt like destiny to me. I got excited by the project, and I told Zhang that I wanted to work for him. It was Zhang's team, ambition and dream, as well as my belief that I could be part of something bigger for China, that brought me to Ningxia in the first place.

In March 2019, I left behind my "international costal city life" in Shenzhen for a new life at the foothills of the Helan Mountains, close to the Gobi Desert.

I had heard the Ningxia Eastern Helan Mountains Wine Region was very well suited for making fine wine because of its terroir. For me, Xige Estate is unique and very special within the region. People here work hard together, like a family, to produce great quality wines that can express their local terroir's characteristics, while also offering big volumes in order to be able to build big brands that will make Chinese rediscover and fall in love again with nationally produced wines. It is also an opportunity for me to promote excellent quality Chinese wines, and China's profound culture, throughout the world.

Through my work, I have the chance to welcome many Chinese and foreign wine lovers and professionals whovisit the winery. I do master classes and tastings to explain the wines of Ningxia and Xige Estate, and I also share my knowledge and experience on wine sales and marketing with the future generation of wine professionals that we are training at the institute, which is situated in Minning, a town in Yinchuan, a city in Ningxia.

I think Chinese are very happy to have me, a foreigner, explaining Ningxia wine to them-in Chinese. As a French woman with many years of experience in the wine industry, they maybe trust a bit more my judgment, and they are more willing to believe China can produce great wines too. They are right to believe so, because I wouldn't have stayed in Ningxia if Xige Estate wines were not excellent. Life is too short to drink bad wine.

I think, for foreign wine lovers and professionals, it is also easier to understand Ningxia wines through me, because I know better what to focus on in order to generate interest, and they are more open to having a discussion with me because there is no cultural or linguistic barrier.

I feel now that I am exactly where I should be, and I am made for and belong in Ningxia. I want to keep working hard, to share my passion about Ningxia and China with as many people as possible. I believe, step by step, being a sort of ambassador for Ningxia Wines on the national and international markets, I will be able to make a difference for Chinese wines on the global stage.