Grape Wall of China

A China Wine Blog: The Scene in the World’s Largest Market

Wine sales growth: French fever in Shanghai

Posted on | February 6, 2008 | 1 Comment


By Chantal Chi

A few weeks ago, just before the snow came, I went to a wine shop opening in Shanghai called French Touch. Despite the unusually cold weather, the shop was full of guests, including wine professionals, which just goes to show that with wine, China is hot.

This is shown by recent China Customs statistics about imported bottled wines. More than 15.5 million liters of French wine was imported in 2007, more than double the amount in 2006, which already was double the amount in 2005. If wine is hot, the temperature is rising fast when it comes to French wine. Australian, Italian and Spanish wines saw growth, with Italian wines up 177 percent. Bravo!

France continues to lead the market, both by volume and by value. Unbelievably, it not only remains in front, but won back 7 percent of market value (this success seems to be due both to volume and Grand Cru sales). It’s easy to understand why, since Chinese still love giving French wine as gifts that brings face and prestige.

As this “social code” of giving wine as gifts increasingly turns into drinking wine as part of a lifestyle, we can expect to see even more growth in the market.

Category: Chantal Chi

Comments

One Response to “Wine sales growth: French fever in Shanghai”

  1. Beijing Boyce » The wine word: Jancis Robinson, John Gai, Ethan Perk
    March 5th, 2008 @ 3:21 pm

    [...] Imports of wine to China are booming, a Chinese company buys a Chateau in Bordeaux, and Hong Kong drops its wine taxes. It’s been a wild year so far. I’ve been busy of late interviewing people about China’s wine scene. The three most recent: [...]

Leave a Reply





  • About Grape Wall of China


    beijing-boyce-grape-wall-of-china-logo

    A nonprofit blog by wine professionals and consumers.


    Follow: On Twitter and Facebook.
    Email: beijingboyce at yahoo.com

  • Grape Wall Contributors


    In alphabetical order (see full list)


    Nicolas Carre
    Sommelier


    Chantal Chi
    Writer


    Yvonne Chiong
    Sommelier, consultant


    Judy Leissner
    Grace Vineyard CEO


    Alain Leroux
    Wine maker, consultant


    Li Demei
    Wine maker


    Huiqin Ma
    Professor


    Campbell Thompson
    The Wine Republic co-owner


    Brian Yao
    Consumer


    Frankie Zhao
    Pro-Wine Training & Consultancy owner


    Jim Boyce
    Consumer, blog administrator