Chinese food finds a new friend in Bordeaux wines

During the master class, Ollivier explained how Bordeaux white wine is made and how to pair Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle wines.

Bordeaux has 111,000 hectares of vineyards with 12 percent of them growing white grapes. It produces more than 707 million bottles of wines each year.

According to CIVB, this year's grape harvest in Bordeaux is about 40-50 percent less than 2016, because the fields experienced frost in April and hail in August, but the quality of the wines is expected to be good.

China is the top buyer of Bordeaux wines, both in terms of quantity and value.

In 2016, 74 million bottles of Bordeaux wines were sold on the Chinese mainland, a 16 percent increase over 2015.

Thomas Jullien, the Asia-Pacific representative of CIVB, said young wine customers in China have strong purchasing power, and they want to try different wines.

"The new generation is looking for variety. What's good about Bordeaux wine is that we can provide flavors," says Jullien.

"And while people may think they know Bordeaux wines, there are a lot of products that people don't know well. We want to present a new way of matching Chinese food and our wines," says Jullien.

Contact the writer at liyingxue@chinadaily.com.cn