An official guide listing standard Chinese translations of key wine terms, including the names of individual chateaux, will come into effect later this year.
The final version of the Norm of Terminology Translation of Imported Wines has been approved by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce. It is due to be implemented in September 2015.
The regulation, categorised as a ‘recommended industrial standard’, is the first of its kind in the Chinese wine market. Previously, there were only translation guidelines released by trade bodies of some major wine regions.
In France, Burgundy’s Wine Board, the BIVB, published its official Chinese translation of the Burgundy appellations, crus and grape varieties in 2013.
‘In 2014, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce contacted all foreign embassies, including the French one, to announce the [translation] project,’ Cécile Mathiaud, of the BIVB, told DecanterChina.com. ‘The Chinese Ministry also asked for references we were already using.’
However, BIVB does not know how the BIVB translation was used in the project, and has not heard of the publication of the new regulation.
Wang Wei, head of the China office of France’s Champagne Committee, also confirmed that the trade body was contacted by the Ministry of Commerce via the French Embassy.
‘The entries related to Champagne [in the new norm] would match our common translation, but I’m not sure about the translation of [individual] Champagne houses,’ said Wang.
In the US, the California Wine Institute was also contacted for comments and advice. ‘CWI has not released any official Chinese translations of every AVAs and winery members in the past,’ said Gillian Lu, of the Institute’s China Office. ‘So we partially take the government official translation as the recommended standard, with newly qualified AVAs as exceptions.’
Dorian Tang, national manager of wine education at Chinese importer ASC Fine Wines said that the new guideline is not compulsory to wine companies. ‘Therefore, we think the immediate influence on the market will be limited,’ she added.
She also pointed out that there will be costs for wineries and importers if they decide to change their Chinese translations to follow the new guide.
*Updated on 2nd March 2015.
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