Ep 25: Natalie Wang on Building a Wine Media Powerhouse in Asia

The first time Natalie Wang drank wine she found it ‘rancid’.

Today, Natalie is Southeast Asia’s leading voice for the wine trade. She began as a hard news journalist for outlets like the International Herald Tribune and Reuters, before moving to work with James Suckling, which opened her eyes to the world of fine wine.

In 2019 she founded Vino-Joy, a wine trade magazine based in Hong Kong, which offers business-focused coverage of the Asian wine market, addressing a major gap in the English language media. After attracting significant attention, Don St Pierre invested in the fledgling company, which is now a research house as well as a media outlet.

In this episode, Natalie explains the unique challenges and opportunities of the Chinese wine market, highlighting its significant contraction since 2020 and the shift from a gifting and banquet-driven market to one with a growing base of younger consumers interested in categories like off-dry Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc. She discusses the decline in Bordeaux sales and a rise in interest in Chinese domestic wines.

The episode further explores emerging wine markets in Southeast Asia, particularly Thailand. Altogether the conversation is a comprehensive overview of the Asian wine market from an insider’s perspective.