Left: Tmall's president Jing Jie, TWE's CEO Michael Clarke and Philippe Sereys de Rothschild, chairman of the supervisory board of BPhR. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Created in 1930, Mouton Cadet has been the official wine supplier for the Cannes Film Festival since 1992. It's also the official wine of the 2018 Ryder Cup, a biennial golf competition between teams from Europe and the United States.

BPhR has established long-term partnerships with 453 winegrowers in Bordeaux, with the best grapes from them being used to make Mouton Cadet.

"We choose every single one of our winegrowers. Also, seven oenologists from our team will go around the winegrowers to check they are doing what they are supposed to do. That's why we're able to produce a good, stable quality wine at a reasonable price," he says.

In addition, Mouton Cadet now has a new black label and packaging for the Chinese market, to make it easier for customers to learn about the wine's origins.

As for the choice of corks or screw caps, Rothschild says screw caps are a requirement for certain environments such as in a bar, and certain markets are more open to screw caps than others－such as Sweden and Norway. Many types of wines at different prices have screw caps.
"It's different in each market. We prefer corks because it's traditional and it's what Bordeaux used to do," Rothschild says.

"I'm sensitive about e-commerce, which is important for the wine business. The growth of e-commerce in China is very big, so you have to be a part of it," he says.

"When you put your wine on e-commerce platforms, you can tell stories about your wine online so that customers can learn about it. Also, e-commerce gives you customer insights－what kind of bottles they want to buy at certain times."

Wu Mingfeng, general manager of TWE China, agrees.

"Wine is not an expensive import any more, but an affordable everyday product for Chinese customers. You need to figure out what kind of situations they need to drink wine, and e-commerce offers such insights," Wu says.

"The Chinese wine market is fragmented. It's important for us to educate the market and help customers understand more about wine," he says.

Fang Wai, general manager of food business in Tmall, says Chinese drinkers want to be different from others and have special wines, but they may not know what they need.

"With our data, we can show wine companies how to market for themselves to different kinds of potential customers," Fang says.

"Wine promotion is like music－there's jazz, rock and folk music for different kinds of fans. Data allows us to understand customers' specific needs, what they like and why, and what we can do about it."

According to Tmall's data, people born in the 1980s and 1990s are the main online consumers for alcoholic drinks. More and more young Chinese are getting used to purchase alcohol online due to ample supplies, good prices and direct delivery.