ASC opens Wine Ateliers in Beijing and Shanghai
ASC Fine Wines has opened a Beijing Atelier at Rosewood (28 Aug) and a Shanghai Atelier in the Former Municipal Council Building on the Bund. The St. Pierre family regained control from Suntory in 2025; the venues extend a portfolio of 1,200+ wines from 100+ wineries after Wine Residence clubs closed 2014–2016.
China’s fine-wine trade is building rooms again — this time for substance, not face.
Vino Joy News reports that ASC Fine Wines has opened two Wine Ateliers: Beijing at Rosewood in Chaoyang (opened 28 August) and Shanghai in a new wing of the Former Municipal Council Building on the Bund, the 1922 landmark restored in 2024. Both are live. The brief is trade-first: partners can host clients, tastings, seminars and private nights in rooms that feel like a home for the list, not a pop-up.
ASC’s portfolio runs past 1,200 wines from more than 100 wineries across restaurants, hotels, distributors, e-commerce and private clients. Founded by the St. Pierre family in 1996, the firm spent years under Suntory before the family bought it back in 2025 and pushed a direct-to-consumer, experience-led chapter. Monica St. Pierre frames the Ateliers as a professional home for partners; Don St. Pierre calls them a platform where relationships outlast a single invoice.
This is not the old Wine Residence membership clubs. Those closed in Beijing (2014) and Shanghai (2016) after the gifting crackdown hollowed out face-driven demand. ASC’s Matthew Gong now talks a structural reset: drinkers did not quit wine — they quit story-less bottles. Experience and service are the new ground.
Mini-concept: physical wine rooms work when they teach before they sell. A list that rotates monthly, Diploma-level staff, and a glass that explains the bottle beat a locked club card.
A RTD never needed a Bund atelier. ASC just bet that curious drinkers still do.
Remember: ASC Ateliers — Rosewood Beijing (28 Aug) + Bund Former Municipal Council, Shanghai; 1,200+ wines / 100+ wineries; St. Pierre buyback 2025 after Wine Residence closed 2014–2016.
Source: Vino Joy News