~ By Jim Boyce I recently wrote an article about the Beijing market for an upcoming issue of Wine Business International. It includes insights from a handful of industry players who work for companies that span top-ten distributors to small retailers. One of them is Helene Ponty, who moved to Beijing nearly three years ago to handle importing, marketing and sales of wines produced by the family winery in Bordeaux. The excerpts below include comments she made that I couldn’t fit into the article. For more of Ponty’s insights, and those of others in the China trade, see Wine Business International. On Beijing market trends… “In terms of growth, this year it seems like the Beijing wine market, and the north China wine market in general is a little slower than places such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Chengdu. From my experience and observations, it also seems like the Beijing and north China market are tending toward cheaper wines, ideally less than rmb100 per bottle. Many distributors have asked me for wines around rmb30 wholesale, which for us is impossible. There are similar demands in other markets, but it is the strongest in Beijing.” On the impact of the government austerity programs… “When I arrived here 2.5 years ago, people [...]