A teetotaler movement is probably the last thing China’s struggling wine industry needs.
Thus, this headline from China Daily will get a chilled reception from the trade: “Liquor drinking will not do any good to people’s health.”
The author, newly returned to China, is no ordinary citizen with a hot take: Chen Weihua was the chief Washington correspondent and senior editor at China Daily USA.
“I have been meeting friends and relatives for dinner and drinks since I returned to China after 16 years of being a foreign correspondent,” he writes. “One pleasant surprise is that fewer people now drink alcohol, at least the people I know.”
Chen compares this experience to some past “nightmarish” ones in China when, “People wanted to show their hospitality by constantly raising their glass and saying ganbei (bottoms up).”
He specifies weddings where grooms got “completely drunk” and states he recently attended one where nobody at his table consumed alcohol. (Such events can indeed get crazy: I once helped carry a passed-out French groom from the wedding reception to a car in Beijing.)
Chen then goes beyond anecdotes. He criticizes TV and subway station ads promoting baijiu—the grain-based national spirit—for enticing consumers, adding this is not in the spirit of China’s advertising laws.
He also cites the Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School when listing the ills associated with alcohol.
And he zeroes in on a World Health Organization report that he states found “no amount of alcohol consumption is safe” although this is disputed by some in the trade.
Grapes do not escape Chen’s wrath.
“I heard many saying that moderate drinking is good for health when I toured a dozen or so vineyards in Napa Valley in California 20 years ago,” he writes. “That today has turned out to be not true.”
His general message: “Drinking alcohol will only weaken a nation by harming the health of its citizens.”
Such views are not great for China’s wine business.
Health has been a major reason why people buy wine in China, with consumer surveys placing it near the top, or at the very top for some demographics. It’s not just seen as healthier versus baijiu but also for its perceived antioxidant, anti-aging and other effects. People here have been aware of the ‘French paradox‘ for decades.
This extends to younger consumers. A fairly recent survey of over 8000 university and college students found their top three reasons for buying wine were relaxation, taste and health benefits.
And as noted in a recent newsletter, while health benefits have generally been associated with red wine, they are also being cited for the surging sales of white wines, namely that those wines tend to be lighter.
On Saturday, I was among the people who spoke to a small group of winemakers participating in a China-Australia winemakers exchange program and someone asked about low and no-alcohol wines.
We do indeed see more of these popping up in China, including the Niya dealcoholized wine seen above: I tried that one at a recent Beijing wine fair.
Besides that, we also see people opting for lighter wines. Are there still consumers seeking those big reds packing 15% ABV and up? Yes.
But there is a trend, including among younger consumers, toward lighter wine, including white wine, pet-nats, orange wines, less boozy reds and more.
I’m going to do some digging into lower, low and no alcohol wines in China and will post more later.
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