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A trio of stories about Chinese wine on the move. Also of note, I wrote a few months ago about six boutique Chinese producers entering the New York market. Not only are sales going well but these brands did a China wine tour of four Florida cities in July.
Merchants x Moscow
Seven Ningxia wines popped up in Moscow last month courtesy of Isabella Ko from wine-centric venues The Merchants in Beijing and Shanghai.
Ko not only spent a week exploring the food scene—capped by a “four hands” dinner featuring Maya Restaurant chef Tom Halpin and The Merchants chef Paolo de Souza—but also brought an intriguing mix of wines for diners, media and sommeliers, all under a “China’s Rising Winemakers” theme.
“I knew just from looking at their wine lists that they’d love them—and sure enough, the response was explosive,” posted Ko on WeChat. “For two straight days, the room was filled with exclamations of, ‘This is Chinese wine? Wow!’”
The seven wines, presented by Ko and Moscow-based sommelier Evgenia Nazimova, included:
– A Cabernet Sauvignon from Ruo Shan and a Syrah from Time Machine, made by Deng Zhongshan.
– A skin-contact Italian Riesling and a Syrah from The Cellar Project.
– A Marselan and an apricot wine from September.
– And a blend called “The Gathering” from Xiao Pu / Petit Garden.
Ko added that while Chinese wines are often seen as prohibitively expensive, she found interest in Moscow for importing them—”especially since several trendy new Chinese dining concepts are about to launch there.”
Interestingly, I’ve recently seen posts on Chinese social media about rising Russia wine exports—to China! Per Taste of the World, China imported USD1.3 million of Russian wine through July this year, with a third of that in April alone, up nearly 85% year-on-year.
Heading Down Under
A post by Purple Dream Network reports that some 800 boxes of wine from five Ningxia producers are on their way to Australia. The quintet includes Silver Heights, Yuanshi, Heyu, Lansai and The Starting Point.
The shipment is expected to arrive in Fremantle from Tianjin in early September, with 18 different wines destined for the shelves of the Dan Murphy’s chain.
This follows a shipment of 200 boxes from 14 wineries in late 2023, also per Purple Dream. Those were used for brand promotion—everything from national day receptions and festival celebrations to tastings and training sessions at universities.
These are far from the only forays of Chinese wine into Australia. Ningxia’s Kanaan, for example, was listed in Dan Murphy’s in 2018.
And during the past year, Hamish Williams of Periphery Wines has been importing Chinese wine: his site lists Tinnyu from Yunnan, Shofang from Hebei, Puchang from Xinjiang, Silver Heights from Ningxia, and with wine from multiple regions, Xiao Pu.
North Korea Bound
South China Morning Post reports that North Korea is the second-biggest customers for Chinese wines by volume this year, after Hong Kong, with just over 157,000 liters, per Customs data. And ranked fifth in terms of value, with nearly USD550,000.
“North Korea was also China’s second-largest wine importer by volume in 2023 and 2024, official trade data showed. By value, it ranked fourth in 2024 and third in 2023,” reports SCMP.
Read the full story here.
Southeast Asia Tour
Seven Chinese wineries toured Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore in late July as part of a Southeast Asia tour organized by Loong’s Toast.
The group included Fei Tswei winery from Ningxia, which brought its Marselan, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and more, including bottles from its LAVA series. Fei Tswei covers 100 hectares, has a capacity of 600 tons and has a core base of a dozen grape varieties, although it has experimented with two dozen more.
The other participants were Boo Chaa, FARMentation, Summerland, Tiansai, Xiaopu and sparkling wine specialists, DEVO.
Loong’s Toast is a project launched this year to help connect local producers with younger generations at home and interested consumers abroad. It has also been active in trade fairs, including Wine to Asia in Shenzhen in May.
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