Many of China’s swelling middle class are replacing the long-popular grain liquor and beer at their dinner tables with imported wine and zinfandels. And that has the U.S. wine industry tipsy with anticipation.

More and more Chinese want to take good care of their health and are shifting from grain to the grape. However, Chinese have a ”nouveau riche mentality that the most expensive must be the best” , according to Wu jianxin, owner fo a Beijing private wine club.

China's wine market is polarized

Opening up an expensive bottle — say, a $4,000 Chateau Petrus — to seal a business deal signals the seriousness of the relationship, said Wu Jianxin. "It shows generosity and indicates you are cultured."

"People ask me, 'What's the most expensive wine you have?'" said Gaylen Richardson, vice president of Via Pacifica Selections ( an american wine exporter), "I'll say Quintessa, about 2,500 yuan ($366). They'll say, 'That's not expensive enough.'"

Drinkers buy very expensive bottles or very cheap ones. China's wine market is polarized. — consumers either buy cheap bottles for a few dollars or dole out more than $1,000 per bottle for elite French vintages, Duckhorn said. "Our job is to open up the middle market, $15 to $100 a bottle," he said.

U.S. thirst for China’s wine market

Wine consumption in China, promoted in part by a small but growing domestic wine industry, nearly doubled from 2004 to 2008 to about 900 million bottles, making it the eighth-largest wine market in the world, according to Vinexpo, organizer of one of the world's largest wine and spirits conferences. Over the next three years, consumption is expected to soar 32 percent, to 1.26 billion bottles. The United States, the world's second-largest wine market, consumes about three times as much wine as China.

"China is literally the wild, wild West of the wine world," said Eric Pope, who oversees international wine programs for the San Francisco-based Wine Institute, a trade group representing more than 1,000 California wineries.

Competition in China’s wine market

Imported wine in China is slapped with a 50 percent tax, so it's pricier for Chinese to explore U.S. vintages than it is for Americans. But cost is not the only challenge.

U.S. wine makers face tough competition in China, especially from the French, who have been selling wine in China for decades and who aren't above a little vinous trash-talking. They promote their wine as superior to all others.

"The French wines always come in first in China," said Yanguang Jin, general manager of AWA (Shanghai) Trading Co., a year-old company that is importing California wine. In 2008, French wine represented 46 percent of all imported bottled wines, while the United States had only 5 percent of the market, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The U.S based Wine Institute has launched a marketing push in China to educate the newly wealthy masses about California wine, whose fruity intensity is more in line with the Chinese palate.

The Immature market

Beside all these competions, vintners also need to pay attention to copycats in China’s wine market.

 "There are a lot of fakes, and the government has one eye open and one eye closed," Wu said. "The fake wine industry will employ a lot of people."

For some foreign vintners, China’s reputation on corruption is another problem. Some wineries’ve already complained that “a cargo comes in and two cases are taken (for so-called inspection).

"This is a very immature market. They don't know much about wine," said Richardson, "but the drive to know about wine is there."

According to John Boudreau, who’s written an article on it, U.S. vintners should use relationship-building and word-of mouth strategies to start their sales in Chinese market. “A bit of unorthodox salesmanship might help as well”. 

Copyright is owned by Chinese Wines Information Website.If you want to reproduce this article,please contact (info@wines-info.com)and attach the source and author's name.