BORDEAUX, Burgundy… Xinjiang. by scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com 2008-05-26.
The world's wine map may have to be significantly re-drawn with figures showing more than a glass is being raised to China. Such is the pace of wine consumption in China that last year the country produced more than 700 million bottles with new statistics showing that production will outstrip Australia's by 2009.
Supermarket chain Morrisons has already added two wines from the north-west of China to its portfolio, while London fine wine merchants Berry Brothers & Rudd (BBR) has predicted that, by 2058, China will have all the essential ingredients to make fine wine to rival the best of Bordeaux.
Jasper Morris, senior buyer for BBR, says he expects China's current 400 wineries to grow by more than tenfold with up to a quarter producing fine quality wine.
"I absolutely think China will be a fine wine player rivalling the best wines from France. It is entirely conceivable that, in such a vast country, there will be pockets of land with a terroir and micro-climate well suited to the production of top quality wines."
Wine consumption is rocketing in China. More than a 100 wineries have opened since 1996, swelling the number of vineyards to more than 500.
New figures from the Chinese government, showing the production of 700 million bottles of wine in 2007, indicate that it is the sixth largest producer in the world. This figure is expected to increase substantially over the next five to 10 years, driven by demand from China's burgeoning middle class.
At present, there are 310,000 US dollar millionaires in China and 106 US dollar billionaires. Demand for wine, both domestic and imported, has reached unprecedented levels.
According to Alberto Fernandez, general manager of Torres China, a wine importer with offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, there are currently fewer than 10 well-known Chinese labels but they enjoy "huge consumer awareness" in China and often beat better imported labels for shelf space.
Most vineyards in China are state or collectively owned and subdivided into individual plots of less than half a hectare. Shandong, to the south-east of Beijing, is the largest producer. Having the same latitude to California, it is one of the most suitable regions for producing wines.
In the north-west, Xinjiang province is also a major producer but its production is hampered by the bitterly cold winters.
Chinese wine typically sells for 35 yuan (£2.60) a bottle, although some finer varieties can sell for over 400 yuan (£29). For example, China Torres sells a bottle of Chairman's Reserve, a blend of cabernet sauvignon and merlot, from the Grace vineyard in Shanxi region, for 405 yuan.
Foreign wines sell for over 100 yuan at the lower end, and fine wines go for thousands of yuan.
Philippe Larue, director of Scottish wine merchants l'Art du Vin, said: "It goes very well with Chinese food. You can grow grapes almost anywhere in the world now, so why not China? But when they like something they are very good at systematically recreating it. If they want to make good wine, they will learn and copy it and try and make it the best in the world.
"They also have to find their own identity. There is no point in just recreating the great wines of Europe. Rather like Argentina made the Malbec grape variety its own, China will have to find something that represents what they are producing."
The news comes as Hong Kong is set to overtake London as the wine market and storage centre of choice for Asia's wealthy. Most of the region's super rich buy and store their fine wines in London, but auction house Bonhams has already held its first auction of wine there in a decade, while New York wine merchant Acker Merrall & Condit is holding one in Hong Kong next Sunday.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
China Wine Tours on CNBC
Check the gallery page of China Wine Tours to see the news story that CNBC's Mike Hegedus did about Chinese Wine and China Wine Tours!
Thursday, May 22, 2008
New report predicts boom in China wine producers
It's the crystal ball of all things wine, the Future of Wine report by London based merchants, Berry Brothers and Rudd. Their prediction? That China's wine producers will lead the world by 2058, rivallling the best of Bordeaux.
Presenter: Bo Hill
Speakers: Marc Curtis, founder China Wine Tours; Steve Clarke, president, China Silk Imports.
HILL: Champagne, Bordeaux, Napa Valley, the Rhine, the Barossa Valley - the names of old and new world wine regions slide over the tongue as easily as, well, a good red. But what about Shanxi?
CURTIS: In Shanxi province is what's considered to be the best wine in China right now is Grace Vineyards and they've become the house wine in such hotels as the Peninsula, and some other very high end hotels, they're so good."
Full article and audio stream at: Radio Australia
Presenter: Bo Hill
Speakers: Marc Curtis, founder China Wine Tours; Steve Clarke, president, China Silk Imports.
HILL: Champagne, Bordeaux, Napa Valley, the Rhine, the Barossa Valley - the names of old and new world wine regions slide over the tongue as easily as, well, a good red. But what about Shanxi?
CURTIS: In Shanxi province is what's considered to be the best wine in China right now is Grace Vineyards and they've become the house wine in such hotels as the Peninsula, and some other very high end hotels, they're so good."
Full article and audio stream at: Radio Australia
Monday, April 28, 2008
China Winery Visit: Bordeaux Style
In March I had the opportunity to visit Chateau Bolongbao in Hebei Province, about an hour outside of Beijing. Also along on the visit was Jim Boyce, author of The Grape Wall of China blog who posted a story and some photos about our visit.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Global Warming to Help China
http://www.indianwineacademy.com/item_1966.aspx
Whether it is toys, computers or silk sarees from India, China can make more and cheaper. Now Mother Nature is also benevolent. With global warming to its aid China is set to become a prominent wine producing country in a few decades.
Speaking at the Climate Change and Wine Conference in Barcelona which was reported in the previous issue of delWine, the Australian consultant on viticulture, Dr Richard Smart said: "In 30 years time, China will be a country better able to adapt to global warming." He was talking on 'global warming and its impact on vines and viticulture' at the conference.
Dr. Smart is already involved in advising Chinese investors looking to purchase suitable wine producing land and they are currently looking at an area close to Beijing.
Smart said that while China, currently 8th largest producer of grapes in the world is very wet near the coast and more arid towards the inland, would provide exciting opportunities in the future, going northwards.
Southern hemisphere regions like Chile, Argentina, Tasmania and New Zealand, as well as Northern Europe and even some parts of China are 'lucky', Smart suggested, as there was room for growers to move to cooler or higher areas to plant grapes.
Growing new varieties of grapes especially for hotter regions would be a crucial industry response to ongoing global warming, he said. Smart also suggested harvesting at night and the utilization of classical breeding rather than molecular techniques as a potential solution.
The conference kicked off with an address from Pancho Campo, President of the Wine Academy of Spain, and local politicians. A spokesman from the Catalan department of climate said, 'There is no point crying over spilt milk. We have to find solutions for our problems and that is exactly what we intend to do today."
President of OIV, the International Organisation for Vine and Wine, Peter Hayes said the challenges being posed by climate change to the wine sector were reflected across the world. 'I hope we might see action on regional planning" adding that it was a question of allocation of resources.'
Whether it is toys, computers or silk sarees from India, China can make more and cheaper. Now Mother Nature is also benevolent. With global warming to its aid China is set to become a prominent wine producing country in a few decades.
Speaking at the Climate Change and Wine Conference in Barcelona which was reported in the previous issue of delWine, the Australian consultant on viticulture, Dr Richard Smart said: "In 30 years time, China will be a country better able to adapt to global warming." He was talking on 'global warming and its impact on vines and viticulture' at the conference.
Dr. Smart is already involved in advising Chinese investors looking to purchase suitable wine producing land and they are currently looking at an area close to Beijing.
Smart said that while China, currently 8th largest producer of grapes in the world is very wet near the coast and more arid towards the inland, would provide exciting opportunities in the future, going northwards.
Southern hemisphere regions like Chile, Argentina, Tasmania and New Zealand, as well as Northern Europe and even some parts of China are 'lucky', Smart suggested, as there was room for growers to move to cooler or higher areas to plant grapes.
Growing new varieties of grapes especially for hotter regions would be a crucial industry response to ongoing global warming, he said. Smart also suggested harvesting at night and the utilization of classical breeding rather than molecular techniques as a potential solution.
The conference kicked off with an address from Pancho Campo, President of the Wine Academy of Spain, and local politicians. A spokesman from the Catalan department of climate said, 'There is no point crying over spilt milk. We have to find solutions for our problems and that is exactly what we intend to do today."
President of OIV, the International Organisation for Vine and Wine, Peter Hayes said the challenges being posed by climate change to the wine sector were reflected across the world. 'I hope we might see action on regional planning" adding that it was a question of allocation of resources.'
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The China Wine Syndrome
From Michael Veseth's Grape Expectations
I've never tasted Chinese wine, but that's going to change quite soon. I have two bottles, both hand-carried from China by my former student Brian West. One is a 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon from China's oldest winery, Changyu (founded in 1892). The other is a 2003 Tasya's Reserve Cabernet Franc from what many people say is China's best winery, Grace Vineyard (or Shanxi Grace Vineyard to differentiate it from a Japanese winery with the same name -- Shanxi is the region of China where Grace Vineyard is located).
I have heard a lot of stories about Chinese wine -- about how bad it is, how prestige-seeking Shanghai yuppies mix expensive first growth Bordeaux with Coca Cola and of vast vineyards in China that threaten to flood world markets with cheap wine (as Chinese exports have flooded some other markets already). The prospect of drinking Chinese wine for the first time gave me an incentive to see what I could find out about the Chinese wine industry and market. Here is a brief account of what I have learned.
The complete article is available at Michael Veseth's Grape Expectations
I've never tasted Chinese wine, but that's going to change quite soon. I have two bottles, both hand-carried from China by my former student Brian West. One is a 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon from China's oldest winery, Changyu (founded in 1892). The other is a 2003 Tasya's Reserve Cabernet Franc from what many people say is China's best winery, Grace Vineyard (or Shanxi Grace Vineyard to differentiate it from a Japanese winery with the same name -- Shanxi is the region of China where Grace Vineyard is located).
I have heard a lot of stories about Chinese wine -- about how bad it is, how prestige-seeking Shanghai yuppies mix expensive first growth Bordeaux with Coca Cola and of vast vineyards in China that threaten to flood world markets with cheap wine (as Chinese exports have flooded some other markets already). The prospect of drinking Chinese wine for the first time gave me an incentive to see what I could find out about the Chinese wine industry and market. Here is a brief account of what I have learned.
The complete article is available at Michael Veseth's Grape Expectations
Now, Super-wine to boost your lifespan
London, Jan 8 (ANI): The health benefits of wine have since long been known, but now fans of the fruity cocktail may have something new to cheer about, for Chinese scientists have made a wine made from genetically engineered grapes which might help boost the drinkers longevity.
Yuejin Wang and colleagues at the Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University in Yangling, Shaanxi province, China, have produced a grapevine six times richer in resveratrol the compound in red wine associated with health benefits.
The researchers made the wine equipped it with an extra gene from a wild Chinese vine, reports New Scientist.
Vitus pseudoreticulata has an unusual variant of the stilbene synthase gene, which triggers resveratrol production.
The team plans to make wine from the GM (Genetically Engineered) vine, although their major goal is to make grapevines more resistant to fungus, which is kept in check by resveratrol. (ANI)
Yuejin Wang and colleagues at the Northwest Agricultural and Forestry University in Yangling, Shaanxi province, China, have produced a grapevine six times richer in resveratrol the compound in red wine associated with health benefits.
The researchers made the wine equipped it with an extra gene from a wild Chinese vine, reports New Scientist.
Vitus pseudoreticulata has an unusual variant of the stilbene synthase gene, which triggers resveratrol production.
The team plans to make wine from the GM (Genetically Engineered) vine, although their major goal is to make grapevines more resistant to fungus, which is kept in check by resveratrol. (ANI)
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