Wine Sales Ramp Up in China
Written By: Kasey Carpenter on Wed, Aug 27th 2008
What market has seen a 270 percent growth in only five years? What country is on track to become the second largest purchaser of luxury goods by 2015? Yeah I kind of gave it away in the title didn't I?
But let's look at some things making the news.
A California retailer is putting some long cash into this market, even going so far as to set up a wholly-owned Chinese import company in Shanghai to distribute its products throughout all of China.
Focus groups have been dispatched to conduct blend taste tests among Chinese wine lovers to identify the taste and style they are looking for. These tests have been conducted for over a year now. So much for wineries letting the grape and the earth do the talking. The talking they are listening to is Mandarin, and the corresponding Yuan.
Two of the largest banking firms in China have begun to offer the country's first sort of futures market, granted it is only being designed to sell wine that is produced in China, but if two huge banks think they can make up to $15 million each on sales of futures of Chinese wines, what makes you think these same outfits won't retrofit their models to include wines from all over the planet, especially now that the prohibitive tax has been dropped? Wineries from Bordeaux, Oregon, Priorat, and all points in between will be looking to market their futures with such an entity.
One of the domestic producers, Chateau Junding, is offering its wine en primeur for anywhere from $70 to $80 US per bottle. Something to look into perhaps?
Vinexpo recently released figures stating that China's consumption of wine will grow by 13% per year for the next five years. Yikes! Time to learn Mandarin...
The Society of Wine Educators has set up a Chinese website with hopes of drawing on the growing interest found there.
Global Wine & Spirits is all over China right now, assessing the market from logistics, to buyer trends, you name it. They estimate that by 2010 China will experience 36% growth in consumption as opposed to 4.8% for the rest of the world. They also point out that currently wine only accounts for 5% of total alcohol sales in China. They even go so far as to attempt to extrapolate the percentage of high end wine buyers in China who are actually ex-pats living abroad.
China Consul General Gao Zhansheng is scheduled to visit Lodi on Aug. 6 to tour wineries: Abundance Vineyards (Lodi); Barsetti Vineyards (Lodi); Benson Ferry (Lodi); Irish Vineyards (Calaveras County); Miramont Estate (Lodi); Van Ruiten Family Winery (Lodi); Watts Winery (Lodi), and, Weibel Vineyards (Lodi). Is it because these wineries make up the best of what American wine has to offer? Hardly. But they were in attendance at a crucial wine fair in Hong Kong. Good for them I say.
Finally an article entitled: "Pinot Noir pairs well with Chinese flavors" was recently posted to a Chinese-based wine news website, complete with a recipe for "Chinese Barbecue Pork and Noodles" - now granted this article was never written with a Chinese audience in mind, but it has been cleverly used as a way of making Pinot Noir seem like the obvious choice for the Chinese wine buyer.
Exciting times for wine in the Far East.
