Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/61075
OVERSEAS BUSINESS Great Wall THE BURGEONING CHINESE WINE MARKET PRESENTS CHALLENGES—AND OPPORTUNITIES Discovering California of China I by E. C. Gladstone / photo by Rob Brown t's no secret: Everyone in the industry knows that the biggest growth market for fine wine consumption in the world is China. However, the status-seeking upper-class Chinese have largely shown a disproportionate liking for classic French wine labels over any others. That is, until now. In the past year, according to recent figures from the Wine Institute, U.S. wine exports to China/Hong Kong increased by 42 percent (nearly doubling 2010 figures). A great deal of that is likely staying in main cities Beijing and Shanghai . . . but beyond that? "They're just discovering that California makes wine!" says David Duckhorn of exporter Via Pacifica Selections. For the past four years, Duckhorn has increasingly focused his distribution efforts on China. His company is far from the only one: Firms from giant Pernod Ricard to tiny independents have set stakes in Asia. But Duckhorn feels most still have as much to learn about China as China does about fine wine. "There are so many wineries here ill-prepared to go into the China market," says Duckhorn. "A lot of wineries here think just because they have a great history in the States, they can walk over there and sell. They can't." Some of the Chinese resistance to California wines may have to do with perception. As Ch'ng Poh Tiong of the Singapore Wine Review recently noted, "What Chinese cuisine dislikes most are those inhumanely extracted, overly oaked, black, tannic reds," for which Napa is of course well known (at least as a cliché). But while winemaking has evolved, understanding lags. And Duckhorn notes that, unlike other markets, the Chinese can be more concerned with the label than the juice. 94 / the tasting panel / april 2012