Basic profile
Name: Terry Xu
Current Position: Founder of Aroma Republic
Based in: Shanghai
How long have you been working as an educator: 5 years (since 2009)
Qualifications & Awards:
WSET Scholarship | WSET | 2015
Best Wine Educator Award| Minister of Agriculture of France |2014
Chevalier de l’Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne | 2013
Educator of the Year | Wine Australia | 2013
WSET Diploma | WSET | 2014
WSET Certified Educator
CIVB Certified Educator
BIVB Certified Educator
BNIC Certified Educator
A+ Australia Wine Certified Educator
New Zealand Wine Certified Educator
What system(s) do you use to teach:
WSET / A+ Australia / Bordeaux Wine Certificate / Bourgogne Wine Certificate
How many students do you have (currently): More than 1000 students
What is it like to be an educator in China?
1. How did you get into the business?
Initially, I offered free wine education to my clients with the purpose of selling more wine to them. However, it turned out that neither my knowledge nor my presenting skill was attractive enough. Therefore, I started my WSET study with Fongyee Walker during which I fell in love with wine and wine education. I found myself talkative and humorous enough to fit the stage. Since then, I’ve contributed 100% of my passion to the wine education.
2. What do you think is the level of knowledge among wine consumers at the moment?
Shanghai’s wine consumers certainly have the highest knowledge level in China. Many of them have lots of tasting experience or have their own insights on certain wine regions.
3. What are the reasons that make your students want to learn about wine? Can you see a trend in the last 3 year?
People learn about wine either for professional reason or for personal interest. And I can see 2 trends now. The first one is almost 50% of our students are pure wine lovers. The second one is there’re more female students walking into the classroom. Especially for entry level wine classes, now more than 50% of our students are female.
4. Who was the most interesting student you’ve ever met?
A senior director from a big bank. He is a super busy businessman, but always eager to learn more about how to lead a good life. His interests include cooking, tea and wine etc. Now he is a WSET diploma student. How impressive!
5. Please describe your typical day
I work very often on weekends as Chinese students are not used to night classes. And my typical training day is simple: chatting and tasting with students during the class and then chatting and drinking with the same group of people after class.
6. Videos of your teaching (open in new window)
See next page: A private lesson with Terry
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