CHINA. A report by the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture has pointed to the effect of political and economic changes on wine consumption in China. The report showed that Shanghai’s direct imports of bottled wines have increased steadily, as transhipments through Hong Kong continue to decline.
Increased domestic production has also largely replaced bulk imports, while lower tariffs have smoothed the path for more wine drinking at the higher price level. Such acceptance of fine wines is gradually having an impact on duty free sales, not just in China, but in locations visited by Chinese tourists.
According to another report last year by Access Asia, the value of the Chinese wine market has more than doubled over the last five years, and has become much more sophisticated. Not only are there more foreign wine imports available in restaurants and in shops, but the variety and quality of domestic wines has also increased.
The Chinese government, in a drive to reduce alcohol related illness, has, since 1987, been promoting the idea that consumers drink less of the traditional grain-based spirits, and drink more beer and grape wine. One of the key attractions for wine, as opposed to other alcoholic drinks – especially amongst younger consumers – is that wine is seen as a more sophisticated drink.
White wines have enjoyed such strong growth thanks to white wine being the chosen drink of many Chinese women, as opposed to beer, which tends to remain the main drink of Chinese men. Chinese women not only drink white wine straight, but also like mixing white wine with soft drinks, into white wine spritzers.
Red wine is drunk almost exclusively by Chinese consumers as a table wine, to accompany a meal. As such, red wine sales have relied heavily on the growth in the market for eating out. Expensive bottles of red wine have become the latest “trophy drink” of the Chinese new rich, who like to drink such wines when dining out.
China claims over 160,000 acres of vines nationwide, but much is in remote areas, in Tibet near Kazakhstan, where Silk Road traders brought seeds centuries ago. Russian visitors brought plantings of Muscat and Ratsiteli grapes to China early in the last century.
