Shanghai is bursting with chic, classy places to drink and be seen drinking wine these days, especially in the Bund and Pudong areas. Almost every imposing Bund building now sports a trendy, candlelit rooftop bar, with glorious views over to Pudong.
The Peninsula Shanghai is no exception (32, The Bund, or 32 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, tel +86 21 2327 2888). Its sommelier, Yang Lu, says the wine scene is changing rapidly. Gone are the days when the only reliable wine lists were to be found at M at the Bund and Jean Georges, nearby at 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu.
What's changed, he says, is that more foreigners have come to Shanghai and more Shanghainese are travelling and learning to appreciate wine. The handful of distributors has expanded, breaking up old monopolies, and this has allowed a far wider selection of wines to be imported.
Bordeaux is still the wine of choice. Even if drinkers know nothing about wine, they have heard of Bordeaux and follow the trend. But there are signs of change.
The next big thing after Bordeaux will be Burgundy, with more affordable Italian and Australian wines beginning to gain traction. China will remain a red wine story for some time yet, Lu predicts. 'The supply is much less, but Burgundy is much more interesting - I'd say 80 per cent of connoisseurs love Burgundy.
'The more Chinese people drink and learn about wine, the more they want. But like everything in China, the process is faster than elsewhere.'
So whose wine lists does he rate in Shanghai? For superb French wines, Franck, in the French concession (Ferguson Lane, 376 Wukang Lu, tel +86 158 2167 6767), gets his vote, together with the extensive Park Hyatt cellar in the World Financial Centre.