Jeannie Cho Lee

Coming Up

Training at Smith College and Cordon Bleu gave Jeannie Cho Lee a foundation before she entered journalism. From 1994, she worked as a writer and business journalist at Asia Inc., Far Eastern Economic Review, and The Asset in Asia, where the pace of reporting sharpened a style that was analytical without losing narrative clarity. That same discipline carried into contributions for Wine Spectator, The World of Fine Wine and Dine, Wine Business International, and La Revue du vin de France, placing her work inside the international wine press and building authority through repetition, not posture. From 2009, wine consulting for Singapore Airlines, Galaxy Macau, Resorts World Genting, and Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) moved her into applied service, where knowledge had to be translated for different audiences and settings. In Hong Kong, co-hosting In Vino Veritas in Hong Kong (2014–2015) brought that approach into a public format. Later, as publisher and CEO at LE PAN, Jeannie Cho Lee added publishing and management to a profile already defined by range. Teaching has remained the throughline. Since 2004, Jeannie Cho Lee has been teaching instructor for Wine and Spirit Education Trust courses of Wine and Spirit Education Trust, and since 2008 she has been co-founder / establisher of The Fine Wine School. Asian Palate, since 2009, fits the same frame: a project built around interpretation, taste, and cross-cultural reading. Since 2010, she has also been contributing editor for asia of Decanter, maintaining a steady presence in one of wine’s central trade publications. Her academic appointments extend that teaching work into hospitality and culinary education. As professor of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM), and visiting professor of Chinese Culinary Institute and International Culinary Institute, Jeannie Cho Lee has worked across institutional settings where wine is not treated as an abstract subject but as part of professional formation.

Where They Are Now

Jeannie Cho Lee continues to work as a wine critic, wine educator, and consultant. Her account of first encountering wine is practical rather than romantic: “When I was a university student traveling through Europe, a budding foodie in search of my next flavor discovery, I stumbled upon wine.” The line points to the kind of entry that often matters most in trade work — not a grand plan, but a field opened by use, attention, and repetition.

Signature

Jeannie Cho Lee’s signature dishes include Asian Palate and Mastering Wine for the Asian Palate. The titles map the scope of her work: one oriented toward Asian taste and cultural context, the other toward method, structure, and the discipline of wine knowledge.

In Their Words “When I was a university student traveling through Europe, a budding foodie in search of my next flavor discovery, I stumbled upon wine.”