Christie's auction house is to introduce Chinese tasting notes for sales of Bordeaux and Burgundy in the Far East.

The firm's head of wine in China, Simon Tam, decided to introduce the measure to bring the auctioneer "closer to the Chinese community", Decanter reports.

Chinese interest in Bordeaux and Burgundy has increased sharply in recent months, pushing the price of labels such as Chateau Lafite Rothschild to record levels.

However, many terms used in traditional tasting notes are close to meaningless when translated into Chinese.

"You can describe a rare old Burgundy as having 'forest floor' or 'earthy' characteristics but when you translate that literally, you'd be lucky to find a forest in the middle of Shanghai," he told the publication.

As well as witnessing strong sales of Bordeaux and Burgundy, Christie's may be expecting more interest in Champagne from Chinese wine enthusiasts this year.

Salon's Didier Depond told the Drinks Business recently that Chinese drinkers are "coming round" to the idea of drinking Champagne.