Actress Carina Lau is the latest Chinese celebrity to parlay her fame into wine.

To be unveiled at world’s biggest wine trade event, Vinexpo in Bordeaux this week, Lau will provide a world preview of her Bordeaux Supérieur, Médoc, Saint-Emilion, champagnes and sparkling wines.

Lau is one in a string of Chinese stars to make their foray into wine, a lucrative business in Asia.

While consumption has slowed in the last few years after a period of frenetic growth, China remains the largest red wine market in the world and the fifth largest wine market for still and sparkling wines, according to the latest figures from a Vinexpo study published in 2014.

Former basketball star Yao Ming was, perhaps, among the most high-profile Chinese celebrities to venture into wine, snapping up vineyards from California’s Napa Valley.

His flagship Yao Ming Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is aged for 18 months in French oak barrels.
Likewise, in 2011 Chinese actress Zhao Wei bought Chateau Monlot Saint Emilion Grand Cru, a vineyard of 8.5 hectares in the foothills of Saint Emilion.

Since about 2008, wealthy Chinese investors have snapped up more than 20 chateaux in the Bordeaux region.

Lau’s wines will launch officially June 18.

Vinexpo runs June 14 to 18.