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In this week’s live chat on the Ethica Wines Instagram, our weekly host and in-house educator spoke to our Asia-Pacific content creator and media consultant Natalie Wang about the current situation in China. Natalie is based in Hong Kong and covers all of China. She’s also the author of Vino Joy News, a leading blog devoted to the wine trade in her country. She talked at length about how a new culture of online socializing around wine and wine education has emerged in the days since COVID-19 began impacting daily life there. Many wine enthusiasts, she told us, are organizing Zoom-like hangouts where each participant tastes the same wine, for example. She also reported that the wine auction business has been booming in China as collectors are using the downtime to restock their cellars. This is great news for the world wine market, she points out, because it’s an indication that demand is still great. Retail, thanks to highly organized distribution channels, is also doing extremely well, she said. In Hong Kong, the news isn’t so good: The Hong Kong government actually tightened its restrictions on restaurants, bars, and wine sales as concerns over a new outbreak have grown. But over all, the Chinese wine industry has remained strong, given the current situation, thanks to creative thinking and highly organized social media networks there. Jeremy was eager to ask her about her most recent blog post on Chile’s “withdrawal” as the featured country at VinExpo Hong Kong. The gathering had been postponed from May to July but Natalie believes that the Chileans’ decision not to participate might be an indication that the event will either be cancelled outright or postponed once again.

Please follow this link to watch this live stream with Natalie.