“We receive professional advice from mainland wine practitioners and experts to add local flavour to the course,” Wan says. “The course is also delivered in English, as opposed to being taught in French in Bordeaux. This has opened the door to students from Asia who do not necessarily know French.”

Two 10-day overseas workshops take students to Adelaide in Australia and Bordeaux. “In France the best chateaux only welcome wine academics and experts. Through the programme, our students will be able to visit these chateaux and get to know real wine practitioners, who are important components of the network that students need to develop if they want to be successful in the wine industry,” Wan says.

The workshop in Australia was introduced to help students learn more about the wine market in the “New World”. “In Australia students will visit vineyards and meet with winemakers, wine marketers and members of the wine media. There will be plenty of chances for them to gain insights into the wine market from a variety of sources,” Wan says.

“In the upcoming school year in 2013, we will also have a workshop in Hong Kong for students from France and other places, so that they can learn about the wine market in Asia and Hong Kong. This will give them a comprehensive view of the wine market.”

One of the key elements of the MBA is a module on entrepreneurship, which uses case studies to teach students how to run their own wine businesses. “Our entrepreneurship module is an extension of the strategic marketing module that we used to have. It has many case studies for students to learn about managing a business. There will also be guest speakers who are leaders of wine companies and owners of vineyards who can share with students the opportunities of investing in wine,” Wan says.

The part-time programme takes two years to complete and the graduation ceremony will be held at a chateau in Bordeaux.

Applicants should have a bachelor’s degree, ideally in a business-related discipline, and at least five years of working experience, preferably in the wine sector.

Lectures usually take place on weekday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays and are conducted by a variety of teachers including BEM lecturers, wine industry practitioners and MBA academics.

Chan Tze-chin, a lawyer, has always been interested in wine. After taking a few courses offered by the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, he decided wine was an area in which he really wanted to work, so he opened a wine business with his father-in-law.

“Many people think that knowing how to enjoy wine means knowing the wine business, but this is actually not the case,” he says. “I enrolled on HKUST’s MBA programme to learn how to run a wine business. Marketing, logistics, supply-chain management – there is a lot to learn to become an entrepreneur in wine.”

Chan says he learned a lot about the international wine market through the overseas workshops and gained knowledge on how to run the business from the local parts of the programme. “The transport of wine is complicated. The programme taught me the laws involved and how to keep wine in good condition during transport. This is knowledge that a wine trader needs to know besides knowing how to appreciate wine,” he says.

As a newcomer to the wine industry, Chan treasures the opportunities he has to pick the brains of classmates who are industry veterans. “Many of my classmates are wine traders and they are willing to help me understand how the trade runs. Together with the knowledge gained from guest speakers at overseas workshops, I have been able to gain so much in so little time. With input from so many parties, the knowledge I have gained is powerful,” he says.