Wine critic Jancis Robinson MW has terminated her partnership with Chinese wine website TasteSpirit.com, following her Chinese business manager Yong Shi’s split with the Chinese wine media company.
In an email sent out by Jancis Robinson addressed to TasteSpirit management, the master of wine states, “I hereby terminate the consulting relationship between Jancis Robinson and JancisRobinson.com with TasteSpirit.”
“I also wish to terminate TasteSpirit’s partnership with JancisRobinson.com and Purple Pages as Chinese content provider,” she wrote.
Without elaborating, Robinson further added, “I no longer think our partnership is appropriate for JancisRobinson.com which prides itself on its editorial independence.”
The letter was sent out after Yong Shi, Robinson’s Chinese business manager, resigned from all of her posts at the Chinese company, which she co-founded with two other partners in 2013, and is looking to sell her shares in the company, Chinese language media Vinehoo.com reported.
When reached by Vino-joy.com, Shi confirmed the story.
“The main reason is that shareholders have differences of opinions regarding direction of company’s future development and next round of raising capital,” she told Vino-joy.com.
Shi is among the first batch of Chinese wine students who obtained WSET diploma in China, and has worked for JancisRobinson.com since 2011 as its Chinese business manager.
She also organised Chinese Wine Summit with the rest of the TasteSpirit team, and was head of TasteSpirit’s wine academy.
