The Chinese Market: Do Mid-Range Wines have a Chance?
By Marisa D'Vari | June 25th, 2011 | Category: News, Trade | No Comments »
So I just returned from Vinexpo where the talk was all about the chinese Market. As you know, top chateaux are creating special bottles for China, and are looking East to sell their wine.
But what about the 'little guy?"
Decanter magazine ran an article in which Ian Ford, managing partner of Shanghai-based Summergate, one of the three biggest mainland-based importers, said Chinese consumers will ‘move away from image-hunting and begin to buy much more on knowledge.’ (You can read the article here)
Ian told Decanter: ‘The professional middle classes are constantly expanding their knowledge. They are going to start buying wines they enjoy to drink and that are produced in quantities that can sustain that level of export.’
Ford suggested wines such as d’Arenberg’s The Stump Jump or Concha y Toro’s Casillero del Diablo – both of which Summergate imports – as likely candidates. At the same time the Bordeaux hegemony in China will be neutralized. ‘ Bordeaux will stay on the radar, but its popularity is a vicious cycle: the perception is that it is the only region people are interested in, therefore that is all that is offered to them. In terms of demand, Burgundy is fast becoming the most sought-after region after Bordeaux, but its wines are not produced in anything like the quantities necessary to satisfy a market the size of China.
Decanter said that according to figures from International Wine and Spirit Research (IWSR) released in January this year, consumption of wine by China and Hong Kong increased by over 100% between 2005 and 2009, from 46.9m to 95.9m cases.
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