Riesling Fellows China

Founded by Shenghan Wang, the wine content, e-commerce, and cultural community brand “Lady Penguin” boasts more than five million followers and over 600,000 subscribers. German Riesling has always been a bestseller on the Lady Penguin platform. Through blogs about German Riesling and co-branded products in collaboration with German wineries, Shenghan Wang has significantly increased the popularity of German Riesling among consumers. “This award from Wines of Germany China is so meaningful to me that I will double my efforts to promote German Riesling in the future,” Wang Shenghan stated in her acceptance speech. She sees the main reason for Riesling’s success in the Chinese market as its ability to win over the female consumer group.

Yang Lu is the world’s first Chinese Master Sommelier, founder of Grapea & Co. Wine Academy and Topsomm Sommelier Service Consulting. He is committed to promoting the high quality and diversity of German Riesling in wine education and among sommeliers, and plays a significant role in strengthening the influence of German Riesling in the wine industry. “A few years ago, a wine magazine asked me in an interview to describe myself with a grape variety. Without hesitation, I blurted out ‘Riesling,’ because I considered myself an honest and authentic person,” Yang Lu recalled. Looking back on that statement from his younger self, he now knows how challenging it is to live up to that ideal as a great Riesling. “All the more reason I feel honored and very proud to become a ‘Riesling Fellow,’” explains Yang Lu.

Fongyee Walker is the co-founder, with Edward Ragg, of Dragon Phoenix Wine Consulting, Beijing’s first and fully independent wine consulting and education service (est. 2007). She is the first and only Master of Wine resident in Mainland China. Having begun to study wine at Cambridge University whilst reading for a Ph.D. in Classical Chinese, Walker was captain of the Cambridge University Blind Wine Tasting Team and, in 2004, led the Cambridge team to victory, as well as winning ‘Best Blind Taster’ in the Oxford-Cambridge wine tasting match. In the UK, she fell in love with German wine.

She is now a specialist wine educator and consultant (in English and Mandarin), as well as a WSET Certified Wine Educator. Under her direction, Dragon Phoenix has become Mainland China’s most successful WSET provider by results and is the only provider teaching the full WSET Level 4 Diploma. Fongyee has also delivered special trade-targeted wine courses in Mandarin for different organisations, including Wines of Germany.

As a wine judge, Fongyee has judged at numerous international wine competitions and is the group leader for German wine at Wine100. Fongyee has also written articles for Decanter Magazine, The World of Fine Wine, Drink Magazine (Shanghai), The Beijinger, CaijingRibao, Wine Review and Fine Wine & Liquor (China) and acts as a blind-tasting panellist for RVF China and Wine in China, among other Chinese wine magazines. She is also currently a columnist for Decanter China, writing about educational issues. In 2015, she became a wine consultant to Air New Zealand. She was also a significant contributor to the award-winning wine documentary film Red Obsession, both with shooting and in front of the camera, and has appeared as a featured commentator on Chinese Wine on CNN.

Ian was born and raised in New York City, one of the world’s most vibrant and dynamic cities. He attended Duke University, graduating with a BA in History, focusing primarily on modern China and Mandarin Chinese. After an initial sojourn in China for one year in 1990, Ian moved permanently to China in 1995 to take up a career in the wine and spirits business with Seagram, based in Beijing. In 1999 Ian co-founded Summergate, an importer and distributor, focusing on wine, with the goal in mind of leading the Chinese market in imported wines and more in the future.

Now also the marketer and sole distributor of the leading imported sparkling mineral water in China, Summergate, for many in the industry, is the leading company by reputation, quality, knowledge, and professionalism. Ian has traveled to and studied wine in virtually every fine winemaking region worldwide, and for fifteen years has been working closely with leading winemakers, developing their brands in China. Ian has been proudly leading a Riesling Revolution in China in collaboration with the great Riesling producers in Summergate's portfolio.