Filippo Pagnini wanted to import Chinese wines into Italy. Then he encountered a more basic problem: many of his prospective customers knew little about what he hoped to sell.
European drinkers could recognize Japanese sake and Korean soju, he said, but China’s vast range of alcoholic drinks remained largely unfamiliar. Before bringing bottles to market, he decided, he needed to explain them.
The Italian sommelier’s answer is Wine Silk Road, an English-language website mapping China’s wines, spirits and regional drinking traditions. Officially launched on Oct. 15, it features more than 50 guides covering producers, regions, grape varieties and drinks styles, using illustrations and charts to help readers find their way.
“Wine Silk Road grew out of an earlier idea: importing Chinese wines into Italy,” Pagnini told Vino Joy News. “I soon realised that before selling anything, European drinkers first needed to understand these drinks, and that nobody was explaining them properly.”
From Ningxia Reds to Fujian Rice Wine
The website opens with a map of 11 Chinese provinces and regions, including the wine-producing areas of Ningxia, Xinjiang, Yunnan and Shandong. Readers can click through to explore local winemaking history, leading estates, grape varieties and vineyard locations.
But its scope extends well beyond wine.
A baijiu section explains production methods, aroma categories, food pairings and how to choose a bottle. Other guides cover rice wine, beer and spirits produced in China.
The site’s more unusual discoveries appear in “Hidden Roads,” a collection of 36 features exploring lesser-known regional drinks. These range from highland barley drinks on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to sorghum spirits from Kinmen and red yeast rice wine from Fujian.
The map remains a work in progress. It does not yet include Sichuan’s high-altitude wine regions or Jilin, home to two publicly listed sweet-wine producers.
Making Chinese Drinks Easier to Understand
Pagnini, a sommelier certified by Italy’s FISAR association, said years of interest in Asian cultures led him deeper into Chinese drinks. From Ningxia red wines to aged Shaoxing huangjiu, he found products whose quality deserved more attention than they received in Europe.
“Wine lovers here know sake and soju, but very few could tell you what huangjiu is or how to read a baijiu label,” he said. “There was no single English-language reference that explained all Chinese drinks clearly, with verified sources.”
Wine Silk Road joins a growing range of efforts to introduce Chinese drinks overseas. Alongside producers and organizations such as the China Alcoholic Drinks Association, enthusiasts abroad are helping explain the categories to unfamiliar audiences.
Pagnini brought experience in digital publishing and e-commerce to the project. He began working on it full time in September, put an initial version online at the end of that month and continued expanding the content before the public launch.
A Resource for the Trade, Too
The site is intended for more than curious consumers. Pagnini also wants it to serve sommeliers, importers, buyers and restaurateurs seeking information about Chinese producers, regions and styles.
For those professionals, the guides offer a starting point for exploring categories that may be unfamiliar even to experienced wine and spirits buyers.
He is also targeting younger readers interested in Asian cultures, using visual storytelling on social media to draw them into the subject.
“Wine Silk Road was born to fill that gap: an atlas of Chinese drinks, from wine and baijiu to rice wine, beer and the new Chinese spirits,” he said.
His next step is to take the research offline. Pagnini plans to travel to China to visit producers and explore its drinks regions firsthand, adding reporting from the places behind the bottles.
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