By Jim Boyce | Rumors abounded in early 2009 that Marcus Ford, who had just spent a decade at restaurant M on the Bund, was moving into retail. Sure enough, Pudao Wines opened later that year in Shanghai with Ford at the helm, expanded to Beijing in 2011, and will celebrate its seventh anniversary this weekend.(The pic above shows him as a judge at the first China National Sommelier Competition about the time Pudao opened in 2009.)
Pudao Wines, which first went by the name The Wine Way, had backing from importer and distributor Summergate although it has long stocked wines from other suppliers. And it has been home to many classes and tastings as well as banks of enomatic machines that define “try before you buy”.
Today on WeChat, Ford reflected on nearly 20 years of the China wine scene. I have posted, with permission, his comments below.
Wine fans should also note the anniversary tastings this weekend in Beijing and Shanghai, 3 PM to 9 PM on Saturday and 2 PM t0 9 PM on Sunday. Nonmembers pay rmb200, redeemable with purchases, members get in for free, with any purchases resulting in an equal amount of credit on their enomatic machine cards. See the news and events page for more info. The Beijing shop is at Unit F1-01, Tower AB, The Office Park, 10 Jintong West Road, the Shanghai shop is House 102, Ferguson Lane, 376 Wu Kang Road. Here is the tasting lineup:
And here are Ford’s comments:
“Seven years of Pudao in Shanghai has flown by and so much has changed in wine retail in this extraordinary city that I call home.
“When I first came to Shanghai in 1999, there were five or six wine vendors supplying the tiny collection of Western-focused hotels, restaurants and bars. I still have those first wine lists from my M on the Bund days and have fond memories of the Krug rep delivering his Champagne on the back of a bicycle. ASC was just spreading its wings in Shanghai, Montrose was the dominant player, and the rest of the business was spirits companies with a few odds and ends on their lists that hadn’t found a home anywhere else in the world.
“There is a lovely quote from Hugh Johnson that goes something like this: “There are Bordeaux vintages for collectors, for connoisseurs and for restaurants, and there those vintages that should be shipped as far away as possible from the source.”
“In the late 1990’s, that was China. Not only were they the worst vintages of recent decades but they had been shipped all over the world before they found a final resting place in China. Now, of course, there are probably more case of first growths of the great vintages in China and Hong Kong than perhaps anywhere else in the world.
“China didn’t really make much wine in those days. Changyu and the like were still small. Now China is the second-largest producer of red wine on the planet. Wow, that still sounds impossible to believe.
“Torres and Summergate emerged in the early 2000’s and the wine business as a whole seemed low-key and sensible. Then, by around 2006, every man and their dog seemed to be opening a wine company and it’s been a roller-coaster to observe and participate in the business ever since. From five or six vendors in 1999 to 6,000 by the end of 2011, it’s no wonder it’s been such a bumpy ride, from specialists in natural wines or the Piedmont (sorry, but I think you came too early) to the smugglers (please, just go away) to the giants who sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed.
“Some producers sold their souls as well as their wines to China: I am sorry, but you only have yourselves to blame, it’s not easy here despite the huge population. Do the maths:Â most intelligent observers say that there are in the region of 40 million regular consumers of imported wine in China and total imports in the past 12 months are around 40 million cases.
“It’s still a tiny business and nurturing our customer’s relationships with wine, be that once a year or once a week, is the only way that this business will grow in a sustainable way. I am very proud of what we have done in the past and I am very excited about what the future holds!”
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