Chinese acquire taste for French wine

China has overtaken the UK and Germany to become the top export market for Bordeaux wines in value for the first time this year – and the Chinese are increasingly learning how to savour good wine, not just how to buy it, according to the Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux.

Sales of Bordeaux wines in China have doubled every year for the past five years but, in the first half of this year, China and Hong Kong surpassed the UK to take top position for exports of Bordeaux wine by volume – and by value, now totalling €90m ($118m), according to Thomas Jullien, Asia marketing director of the CIVB, which promotes wines from the Bordeaux region.

Germany was relegated to second place, in terms of volume, and the UK to second place in terms of value. China and Hong Kong – where many sales are also destined for the mainland – were fourth in terms of volume last year.

But wine consumption habits in China are becoming more sophisticated, says Mr Jullien.

“Five or six years ago, importers did not even want to taste the wines, they just wanted to look at the price list,” he says.

“Now when you go to a wine fair, people are tasting the wines, and they realise wine is not just about brand and price.”

Bordeaux winemakers recently published a recipe book pairing various Bordeaux wines with traditional Chinese dishes, including such perhaps unlikely combinations such as pigs’ feet with Saint-Emilion and duck tongues with Margaux.

Shaun Rein, head of China Market Research in Shanghai, says many Chinese people are still unfamiliar with the traditional conventions of red wine consumption. “They either put ice cubes in it, or they drink it in shots,” he says.

“I’ve seen people drink $1,000-plus bottles as shots.”

But Rupert Hoogewerf, publisher of the China Rich List, says such habits may not last long.

“The speed of refinement, whether it is understanding watches, or private jets, or private cars, has taken the market by surprise each time and I don’t expect it to be any different for red wine,” Mr Hoogewerf says. He expects demand will continue to grow – and not just for consumption.

“Over the past five or six years, the Chinese entrepreneur has moved his residence from an apartment into a villa,” he adds – and with villas come wine cellars. “People are just in the process of building themselves a cellar and that is another driver for red wine”.

Even hosts at Chinese official banquets – including at Zhongnanhai, the compound where China’s top leaders work and dine – are increasingly serving red wine instead of baijiu, the traditional Chinese liquor so famous for rendering banqueting businessmen senseless in China.

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