China's newfound obsession with wineby Mike Steinberger - Slate Magazine
A specter is haunting Western wine geeks: the prospect of 1 billion Chinese people besotted with wine. As China becomes an economic colossus, its increasingly voracious appetite for scarce natural resources will inevitably extend to the world's most sought-after wines. If even a tiny fragment of China's population acquires the means and desire to regularly drink the likes of Haut-Brion and Romanée-Conti, the effect on (already high) prices and (already tight) supplies will be profound. And, in fact, the balance of wine-buying power is already shifting eastward: Chinese collectors have furiously sought out one first-growth Bordeaux, Château Lafite; and Hong Kong, which recently lifted all duties on wine, is now poised to rival London and New York as a hub of the global wine trade. Of course, there is always the possibility that China could eventually slake its own growing thirst for cabernets and merlots. China has a long viticultural heritage, and on the back of the country's economic gains, the local wine industry is booming: China is now the world's sixth-largest wine producer. But output is one thing, and quality is another. Might there soon be truly fine wines bearing the "Made in China" label?
The complete story at Slate Magazine
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Wine in the World’s Largest Market
GrapeWallofChina.com July 18, 2008
By Jim Boyce
Robert Joseph is founder of the International Wine Challenge, author of The Complete Encyclopedia of Wine, editor-at-large for Wine Business International, and a visitor to China since the mid-1980s. I met him in Beijing last Saturday at China World Hotel and asked him about market trends, wine tourism, the pros and cons of blind tastings, and more.
.....
Tourism and wine links are found throughout China, whether in terms of resorts at Bodega Langes (Hebei) and Chateau Junding (Shandong), more modest facilities at Grace Vineyard (Shanxi) and Yunnan Red (Yunnan), harvest festivals at wineries, or the upcoming inaugural visit by California-based China Wine Tours. If you updated your Wine Travel Guide to the World, what would you write about China?
“China is going to be huge in tourism in all sorts of ways - ingoing and outgoing. The wineries have deep pockets, so I think wine tourism will and should develop in China, and this itself will help to boost wine consumption and make drinking wine a lifestyle activity.”
“At that point, it will be interesting to see China overtake France, ironically, in the sophistication of its wine tourism, just as Argentina and Chile already have. France, despite developments in Napa Valley, in New Zealand, and elsewhere in the New World, has not learned tourism lessons significantly. Arguably, China is already offering better wine tourism than France.”
By Jim Boyce
Robert Joseph is founder of the International Wine Challenge, author of The Complete Encyclopedia of Wine, editor-at-large for Wine Business International, and a visitor to China since the mid-1980s. I met him in Beijing last Saturday at China World Hotel and asked him about market trends, wine tourism, the pros and cons of blind tastings, and more.
.....
Tourism and wine links are found throughout China, whether in terms of resorts at Bodega Langes (Hebei) and Chateau Junding (Shandong), more modest facilities at Grace Vineyard (Shanxi) and Yunnan Red (Yunnan), harvest festivals at wineries, or the upcoming inaugural visit by California-based China Wine Tours. If you updated your Wine Travel Guide to the World, what would you write about China?
“China is going to be huge in tourism in all sorts of ways - ingoing and outgoing. The wineries have deep pockets, so I think wine tourism will and should develop in China, and this itself will help to boost wine consumption and make drinking wine a lifestyle activity.”
“At that point, it will be interesting to see China overtake France, ironically, in the sophistication of its wine tourism, just as Argentina and Chile already have. France, despite developments in Napa Valley, in New Zealand, and elsewhere in the New World, has not learned tourism lessons significantly. Arguably, China is already offering better wine tourism than France.”
Friday, July 25, 2008
Monday, June 30, 2008
Winery Taps into the Chinese wine market
Filippi brand to be sold on far-off shelves
Wendy Leung, Staff Writer
San Bernardino Sun: 06/29/2008 07:42:09 PM PDT
The Chinese straying from tea as their beverage of choice shouldn't be hard to believe.
It didn't take long after the red curtain was raised in the late 1970s for China to embrace Coca-Cola.
And when the Germans settled into the eastern port town of Tsingtao, beer quickly reached the lips of those used to rice wine.
But a goblet of cabernet to go with the kung pao?
.....
Marc Curtis started the Redlands-based China Wine Tours, which will have its first group tour in October bringing American wine enthusiasts to visit the wineries in China. Curtis said the wine scene has changed dramatically, and small boutique wineries are popping up in the provinces of Shandong, Shanxi and Xinjiang.
"Right now, China is the sixth-largest wine producing country in the world and experts say by 2058, they'll be No. 1," Curtis said. "I think it's going to be sooner than that."
If that's the case, Chateau China doesn't seem so odd after all and as the country develops a generation of wine snobs, Cucamonga wines could play a role.
Wendy Leung, Staff Writer
San Bernardino Sun: 06/29/2008 07:42:09 PM PDT
The Chinese straying from tea as their beverage of choice shouldn't be hard to believe.
It didn't take long after the red curtain was raised in the late 1970s for China to embrace Coca-Cola.
And when the Germans settled into the eastern port town of Tsingtao, beer quickly reached the lips of those used to rice wine.
But a goblet of cabernet to go with the kung pao?
.....
Marc Curtis started the Redlands-based China Wine Tours, which will have its first group tour in October bringing American wine enthusiasts to visit the wineries in China. Curtis said the wine scene has changed dramatically, and small boutique wineries are popping up in the provinces of Shandong, Shanxi and Xinjiang.
"Right now, China is the sixth-largest wine producing country in the world and experts say by 2058, they'll be No. 1," Curtis said. "I think it's going to be sooner than that."
If that's the case, Chateau China doesn't seem so odd after all and as the country develops a generation of wine snobs, Cucamonga wines could play a role.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Made in China -- wine that may soon rival the best of Bordeaux
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.
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.
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
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