Ep 12: Why Don St Pierre Is Excited About Both the Wine Business and the Chinese Wine Market

Episode 12 September 18, 2024 00:58:15
Ep 12: Why Don St Pierre Is Excited About Both the Wine Business and the Chinese Wine Market
Drinks Insider
Ep 12: Why Don St Pierre Is Excited About Both the Wine Business and the Chinese Wine Market

Sep 18 2024 | 00:58:15

/

Hosted By

Felicity Carter

Show Notes

While many entrepreneurs are backing away slowly from both the wine industry and China, Don St Pierre Jr is rushing back in — because he sees plenty of opportunity.

In 1996, two Don St Pierres — senior and junior — changed the world of wine forever when they founded ASC Fine Wines in Shanghai.

Don St. Pierre Snr saw an opportunity in wine: as he later wrote about China’s 1.2 billion population, “all of these folks had to drink and eat something.”

Before long, the St Pierres were distributing Beringer and Bollinger, among other fine wines. They pretty much singlehandedly established China’s fine wine market.

Don St Pierre Jr. retired from the business in 2015, and shortly after became CEO and co-owner of California’s Vinfolio. Don St Pierre Sr died in 2023.

Recently Don St Pierre Jr founded AdaptEdge, an investment and advisory company. One of its first investments was in Vino Joy News, the media company founded by Natalie Wang.

And on St Pierre emains bullish on China, even though wine consumption there peaked in 2017. In this podcast, he explains why he believes so strongly in the country, and why he remains so optimistic about the wine industry in general.

In this wide-ranging conversation he reveals:

  1. Why he loves family-run companies and how he evaluates them
  2. How digital innovation can resolve some of the distribution bottleneck problems
  3. Why producers and businesses elsewhere should be taking inspiration from China
  4. How to research the Chinese market
  5. Insights from the Harvard Innovation Lab

As always, the takeaways will be in the newsletter, which you can sign up for at drinksinsider.com

Other Episodes

Episode

September 25, 2024 01:01:33
Episode Cover

Ep 3: The Commercial Determinants of Health With Christopher Snowdown

Why are there so many anti-alcohol stories appearing in the media? One of the harshest critics of the anti-alcohol movement is Christopher Snowdon, Head...

Listen

Episode 1

June 19, 2024 00:45:40
Episode Cover

Ep 1: An Overview of the US Beverage Market With Kaleigh Theriault, NielsenIQ

The U.S. beverage market is the most lucrative in the world — if your product is a hit, your money worries will (mostly) be...

Listen

Episode 30

June 18, 2025 00:36:02
Episode Cover

Ep 30: How Orka Built an Energy Drink for People Who Hate Energy Drinks

What happens when two friends in their twenties get fed up with syrupy energy drinks and decide to invent a caffeinated water that actually...

Listen