Hao SHEN—Founder

Born in Shanghai, Hao started to get interested in wine when he was 19 years old. A year later, he had an opportunity for an internship in an Australian-invested wine distributor in Shanghai. The same year, influenced by a couple of wine critics, he began to write his own wine tasting notes and published lots of wine articles in different websites. Then, he went to Xinjiang to work as the winemaker assistant for a harvest. At that time, Hao felt his passion in wine could not be satisfied in mainland China: he was aware of that only tasting was absolutely not enough, he had to see the sources (vineyards). Therefore, he decided to go to Australia. Hao spent three years travelling around almost all the wine-producing regions in Australia and communicating with the winemakers in their vineyards. It helped him understand not only the winemaking philosophy of each master craftsman but also the concept of nature. At the age of 23, Hao obtained the master of wine business degree in Adelaide University meantime he published publicly his first edition(now still keep updating every two years) which is written in both English and Chinese. Those tasting notes that he wrote are used as a reference for many wine students throughout China. Driven by the strong interest in the European culture and wine, Hao applied a wine business course in ESC Dijon (now BSB) and stay there for almost a year. He has also spent 6 months in Bordeaux when he’s working for a celebrated wine export company. Today, besides operating the website Le Paradis du Vin, Hao is also teaching the wine courses in a university in Shanghai. Hao is regarded as the one of the youngest independent wine reviewers of the world, and is the only international wine critic in Asia so far. He is among the most influential wine journalists in China, not to mention a perspicacious taster driven by a fascination and contagious passion for wine. Hao is driven by a palpable desire to harness western wine cultures and the curiosity of China. This desire is manifest in his impressive writing style.