About Ganbei Universe
I, Emily, am a traveler, a dog-mom, and a wine lover.
I am an ABC (American Born Chinese) from Boston who moved to China after college. Traveling has always been a big part of my life, but it was not until COVID that my interest in wine began to develop (and of course, it was also thanks to COVID that I lost my sense of smell right after a WSET course).
Before moving to Europe, I owned an imported food shop in Yunnan, China. My favorite part of The Shop–its actual name–was the small wine cellar. At the time, I didn’t know what terroir was or how wine was made beyond fermentation. But to sell my products, I had to learn, and as all wine lovers know, the more you learn, the deeper into the rabbit hole you fall.
I pursued formal wine education, earned my WSET Level 3, hosted tastings and wine dinners, and even took my entire staff on a road trip to the Tibetan highlands of Yunnan to meet winemakers and sort grapes.
But I wanted to go deeper; I wanted to live in a place where wine was part of the culture. At the end of 2023, I sold my shop and moved to Bordeaux to continue my studies at CAFA Wine School for a diploma in Wine Consultancy, and soon after, the Mediterranean vibes of Spain lured me to settle in Barcelona.
These past few years, I have traveled extensively through Southwest France and the wine regions of Spain, all the while wishing I could bring people along on my adventures to share in these experiences. That is what wine is meant to be, after all – shared.
That is why Ganbei Universe was born.
Ganbei Universe
My favorite quote about wine comes from Amor Towles’ novel, A Gentleman in Moscow: “Yes, a bottle of wine was the ultimate distillation of time and place; a poetic expression of individuality itself.”
That is what wine is to me. It is history, geology, agriculture, chemistry, tradition, and culture — from the farmer pulling weeds to the oenologist blending the perfect cuvée. But more than anything, it is about people and their stories.
At Ganbei Universe, we bring those stories alive. We travel for people who are not satisfied with textbook learning and tastings without context. Those who want to smell the topsoil, ask the winemaker about their blending choices, and know what it feels like to stand in a vineyard on a 1400m slope. Those who cherish time spent with new friends and strangers over a bottle of wine and good food.
I built this because I have lived those moments myself, and I want to share those experiences with more people. I noticed most winery visits and conversations with winemakers happen in English, leaving out a huge number of wine lovers who deserve to be part of that world, too. As someone who moves between cultures and languages, I started Ganbei Universe to close that gap, and to make wine tourism as accessible and alive for Chinese travelers as it has been for me.
