Champagne Council launches online course in Chinese

France’s Comité Champagne has launched a Chinese version of its online educational platform to promote the region and its wine culture in China.

The e-learning website, named ‘Champagne Campus’, aims to provide an in-depth understanding of all aspects of the region, including the vineyards, the winemaking process, tasting and the protected status of Champagne as an appellation.

There are three different levels of training programmes; Novices, Enthusiasts and Lovers. Users will be recommended a most suitable level after answering four short questions on the site.

‘Champagne Campus is not just for the trade professionals,’ WANG Wei, the representative of the Comité Champagne’s China office told DecanterChina.com. ‘It is also for the Champagne lovers. The design of the course is very intriguing, with various forms such as games, videos, quizzes and practice to provide an enjoyable learning experience.’

At the end of each course, a quiz is given to test how much visitors have learnt. Users can also download the Champagne Campus app onto their mobile phones and tablets.

Vincent Perrin, president of Comité Champagne, visited Beijing today (21 May) to launch the Chinese version of Champagne Campus, which is the first foreign language version after the original English and French release, showing the great importance of the Chinese market to the region.

‘The imports of Champagne to China were affected by domestic [government] policy and was slumped in 2013 and 2014,’ said Wang. ‘However, with the rise of the sparkling wines, we believe that Champagne will attract more and more supporters in Mainland China.’