Ten teams from universities around China sit for a wine appreciation contest of the China qualification of the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup in Beijing on Monday. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Chinese university students are emerging to become the potential grounders of the wine industry as they are already showcasing their professionalism and ardor in the beverage.

Tsinghua University was awarded as the winner by the jury for performing better in the tasting round after tying with the second-place team in terms of the aggregate score in this year's China qualification of the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup, a wine contest for college students across the world organized by the Commanderie du Bontemps, in Beijing on Monday.

Eleven teams from universities around China sat for the test which concluded two rounds on Monday: a theoretical test consisting of ten multiple-choice questions about Bordeaux's history and culture and then a blind wine-tasting test where participants have to identify the vintage, the name of the Chateau and the appellation of the wine within a limited time.

Competitors taste wine and make notes during the contest. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Fan Lina from China, a member of the Commanderie du Bontemps, one of the oldest and biggest French wine appreciation guilds, and a jury member, said she was happy to see young talents were more professional than their ages and had made correct answers of the tasting which are quite limited to the wine appreciation circle and also given precise and professional comments of how a brand of wine tastes.

Today, wine associations are mushrooming on campus and students no longer drink wine just for leisure but to diversify their social lives thus opportunities for their future start-ups.

Zhang Yumin, a graduate student who is in charge of the wine association of Peking University and leader of the university's team in Monday's contest said despite her team not performing well enough they had discovered some new aspirations from the French wineries that could be borrowed to further upgrade the industry in China to make it better known and accepted in the world.

The winner team and the jury members pose for photos after the contest. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Tsinghua and the University of Hong Kong will represent Asia to join six other teams from the United Sates, France and other countries in Europe in the final contest at Chateau Lafite Rothschild, one of France's most acclaimed wine estates located in Pauillac on Bordeaux's Medoc peninsula in mid-June.

Chinese teams are making splashes although they were latecomers to this world platform. In the 2021 final, Sichuan International Studies University, beat rivals from the world's top universities, including Cambridge, to become the first Chinese team to win the event. They were the runner-ups in 2020.

Adrien Bernard, commercial director of Domaine de Chevalier in Bordeaux and also a jury member, said he was impressed by the performance of young Chinese wine enthusiasts and hopes to see them in exchange programs between the two countries in the future.