China has added another Master of Wine, with Shenzhen-based Weiran Liu becoming the fourth Chinese national to earn one of the industry’s most demanding qualifications.
The Institute of Masters of Wine announced Thursday that Liu, 34, was among seven candidates to pass all three stages of the Master of Wine examination. The latest results bring the number of new MWs named in 2026 to 11.
Liu’s qualification also expands Greater China’s community of Masters of Wine, including Chinese nationals as well as international MWs based in mainland China and Hong Kong.
Who Is Weiran Liu?
Born in Shenzhen, Liu moved to the United States for high school before attending Emory University, where he studied international relations and French literature and graduated with dual bachelor’s degrees.
His interest in wine developed alongside his study of French language and culture. During his sophomore year at Emory, he began pursuing WSET qualifications and later spent time at Sciences Po Paris as an exchange student.
France brought wine out of the classroom. Liu travelled through several of the country’s major wine regions and secured an internship at Bordeaux First Growth Château Margaux, an experience that gave him a firsthand look at the journey from vineyard to bottle.
Liu has since described the internship as a turning point in his decision to pursue a career in wine.
After graduating, he entered Hong Kong’s fine and rare wine market, working in the wine auction department at Christie’s Hong Kong. The role exposed him to the commercial side of some of the world’s most sought-after wines, from trading and collecting to auctions, and gave him an early understanding of how collectors value, buy and sell fine wine.
Around 2017, Liu moved into finance, but wine remained a parallel pursuit. He continued his wine education and blind-tasting training, completed the WSET Diploma and set himself the longer-term goal of becoming a Master of Wine.
He eventually shifted his professional focus back to wine, expanding into education, competition judging, brand promotion and consulting.
Now based in Shenzhen, Liu works across wine education, brand representation and promotion, consulting and international wine exhibitions, while also seeking to strengthen connections between China and the global wine industry.
For Liu, wine expertise is about more than accumulating facts. Speaking previously about WSET studies and wine examinations, he stressed the importance of connecting knowledge with the logic needed to construct an argument. His approach to blind tasting is rooted in repetition: tasting widely and frequently until identifying classic characteristics becomes almost a “conditioned reflex.”
His research paper for MW is on choosing the right wine exhibition: an analysis of factors influencing exhibitor preferences in China.
11 New Masters of Wine in 2026
Liu was one of seven candidates announced as new Masters of Wine on Aug. 20.
The other six are Alice Archer MW and Owain Hughes MW from the United Kingdom; Gabriella Macari MW from the United States; Tiago Macena MW from Portugal; Jake Skakun MW from Canada; and Sue Tolson MW from Hungary.
Combined with four candidates who earned the title in February, the latest announcement brings the number of new Masters of Wine in 2026 to 11.
This year’s cohort has also produced milestones elsewhere. Portugal and Hungary have each gained their first resident Master of Wine.
Greater China’s MW Community Grows
Liu joins a small group of Chinese nationals to have earned the MW title.
Zhu Jian MW became one in 2019, followed by Lin Liu MW in 2020 and Xing Wei MW in 2024. Liu is the fourth Chinese national to qualify and the latest MW based in mainland China. Zhu is now based in the United States, while Lin Liu is based in France.
A number of international Masters of Wine have also made mainland China their professional base, including Fongyee Walker MW, Edward Ragg MW, Cassidy Dart MW and Julien Boulard MW.
Boulard recently added another distinction to that list, becoming a Master Sommelier in addition to holding the MW qualification. He is one of only a handful of wine professionals worldwide to hold both titles.
Hong Kong, meanwhile, is home to several resident Masters of Wine including Debra Meiburg MW, Jennifer Docherty MW and Karen Liu MW.
Karen Hong Liu joined the MW ranks in February as one of the first four candidates to qualify in 2026. According to the Institute of Masters of Wine, she runs Pinnacle APEX Ltd., a Hong Kong-based fine wine importer and distributor.
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