A market in Shanghai offers a variety of both Chinese and imported wines. Jing Wei
Jenny Zhang, a 36-year-old Beijing woman, buys wine from Carrefour almost every month.
"I've been drinking wine because it is good for my skin and helps me sleep," she says.
"More and more Chinese, both old and young, and from different lines of business, come to buy foreign wines," says Charles Delamalle, former import wine manager at Carrefour's China headquarters. "They buy the wines, to give friends as a gift or to drink by themselves."
At the Shuangjing branch of Carrefour, there are more than 1,000 wines, and a foreign wine professional to give recommendations. French wines take up half of the sales, according to Delamalle, who has just became director of Sopexa, a promotional organization of French food and wine in China.
"The biggest customers are rich Chinese business people," reveals Delamalle, who has worked at Carrefour for nearly two years.
Many Chinese have switched from drinking white spirits to wine because they believe it is good for their health. Xiang Ying
The biggest single sale at Carrefour was a Chinese customer, who bough 48 bottles of Bordeaux Grand Crux worth 150,000 yuan ($21,000). Each bottle of the wine is priced at from 6,000-8,000 yuan ($844-1,125).
For the second time since 2005, China was 10th place in the world wine consumption rankings, representing 2.2 percent of the world's wine consumption in 2006. The country's wine consumption is expected to increase by 69.5 percent from 2006-2011, according to a study this year by Vinexpo and IWSR, released on Feb 27, in Beijing, based on current trends in the international wine and spirits markets.
Organizers of Vinexpo Asian-Pacific, which is to be held from May 27-29 in Hong Kong, presented the report at a press conference in Beijing. The Vinexpo/IWSR study forecasts that, against a background of substantial economic growth, the annual growth of wine consumption in China will rise from 7 percent per year, which was the case between 2002-06, to 13 percent per year from 2006-2011. By 2011, Chinese drinkers are expected to down more than 1.1 billion bottles, or, 828 million liters of wine per year.
IWSR (International Wine and Spirit Record) is a British market research company.
France remains the leading supplier of wines to the Chinese market, providing 33.3 percent of all imported still light wines in volume. It is followed by Australia, the United States, Chile and Spain.
"A lot of Chinese people associate wine with France, because they see French wines in movies, TV shows, and even on the walls of construction sites," reveals Jim Boyce, an NGO communication manager from Canada.
Charles Delamalle attributes the strong sales of French wine to its good reputation, long history, good quality and great variety.
Although China consumes the biggest quantity of wine in Asia, the IWSR study shows that 92.8 percent of all still wine drunk is of Chinese origin. China ranks second, and way behind Japan, in terms of imported wine consumption.
"Many Chinese people buy cheap Chinese wines to boost the atmosphere at parties or during festivals," says Jenny Zhang. "But those who buy for taste usually prefer foreign wines."
Jim Boyce has lived in China for more than three years, visited Chinese wineries and studied Chinese wines.
"The problem is it is easy to find bad Chinese wines, and difficult to find the good ones, which are produced in small quantities," Boyce says. "Therefore foreigners' impressions of Chinese wines are usually not very good."
Boyce feels that in general, there is not a lot of knowledge about wines among Chinese people.
"But that is because there is not so much interest in wine, as the traditional drink here is white spirit," he says. "It is the same in the West about white spirit."
He expects the quality of local wines to improve, with huge rises in consumption, and more cooperation between Chinese and foreign wine makers.
Beer, white spirits and yellow rice wine are the top three alcoholic drinks consumed in China, according to Wang Zuming, general secretary of the Wine Branch Association of China Beverages Association.
The IWSR report says that Chinese people consumed 50.9 percent of all spirits drunk in Asia, and 23.9 percent in the world, in 2006. IWSR expects a 4.3 percent decrease in the consumption of local spirits between 2006-2011 in China, but a significant rise in imported spirits such as brandies and cognac.
Created in 1981, by the Bordeaux Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Vinexpo was held every odd-numbered year in Bordeaux, France. In 1998, Vinexpo was held for the first time outside France.
The organizers expect 7,000-8,000 major wine and spirits companies to offer displays of their products to professional visitors from 18 Asian-Pacific countries. But according to Robert Beynat, chief executive of Vinexpo Overseas, presently Dynasty, a Sino-French wine maker, will be the only Chinese wine company to attend the exhibition.
According to Vinexpo's press release, growing interest in the Asian markets naturally attracts wine and spirits companies from all over the world. All studies show that potential growth in the wine market in the next five years is strongest in Asia with more than 9 percent annual growth forecast, compared to a world average of 1 percent. That prompted the decision to hold Vinexpo in Hong Kong. （實習編輯：顧萍）