Chianti, “China is strategic for our future”. The “Chianti Academy” 2025 kicks off on August 22

“The Chinese market represents both a challenge and a great opportunity for us. With the “Chianti Academy”, we want to go one step further than simple promotion: we are training people who can become ambassadors for our wine and tell the story of Tuscany in an authentic way”. These are the words of Giovanni Busi, president of the Chianti Wine Consortium, which protects the largest red wine appellation in Tuscany and Italy, ready to embark on a tour that, from August 22 to September 13, will visit four key cities in the Chinese market: Guangzhou (August 22-23), Shanghai (August 29-30), Chengdu (September 5-6), and Beijing (September 12-13).
All this to “sow the seeds for the future” in a market such as China, which is difficult to penetrate, where competition is fierce from countries such as France, but also Australia, which has returned to strong growth after the end of customs disputes with China, or Chile, and where communicating quality and identity is essential to carve out a space for oneself. And it is precisely to make the Chinese understand what Chianti is, why it is a unique wine and different from others, that is the focus of the “Chianti Academy” 2025, which combines lectures, guided tastings, and opportunities for discussion: an immersive account of Chianti DOCG that combines wine and gastronomy. In each city, there will be leading speakers from the Chinese wine scene. And so, in Guangzhou, there will be Jerry Chen, a teacher at the Asia Wine Service & Education Centre training school and holder of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) diploma; in Shanghai, Stephen Li, one of the first Chinese to obtain the WSET diploma and active in professional training for over 10 years; in Chengdu, Marshall Chen, manager of the largest wine training center in Southwest China; and in Beijing, Jeff Gong, director of WineIta.com and certified sommelier of the Italian Sommelier Association (AIS).
China - which Italian wine has been trying to conquer for years but still without the hoped-for success, as the latest Istat data show - is a key player in the Chianti region’s market diversification strategy (which for years has also invested heavily in markets that are currently “minor”, from Mexico to Cuba, from Africa to the smallest Asian countries, ed.), which is working to increase the global audience to whom it can bring the 75 million bottles sold each year, produced by 2,200 producers on over 13,600 hectares of vineyards, for Chianti, the most popular red wine appellation in Tuscany.