Chinese Wine, When the Pigs Fly?

The Chinese are buying more wine than ever before, but will they – and we – soon be drinking wines made in their homeland.

Considerable column inches and millions of internet posts testify to the interest in mainland China as an emerging market of thirsty wine consumers. But as producers around the world eye up China as a key export market, they might also be keeping an eye on its potential as a winemaking country in its own right.

In China’s Olympic year (2008), a group of Masters of Wine suggested that the country might, in the next 50 years, become a fine-wine producer. Others wondered if such crystal-ball gazing was tongue-in-cheek, given the generally lower quality of Chinese wine and the challenges facing viticulture there.

It is worth remembering that only the Chinese government owns land in China. All agricultural activity is organized via units, and Chinese farmers are not experienced viticulturists. Heavy irrigation and overuse of pesticides blight quality and many parts of the country suffer inauspicious weather conditions.

Shandong is a major centre for grape production, but summer rains wreak havoc with rot. Even with spraying, farmers are forced to pick early, yielding underripe grapes that produce unpleasant green aromas in finished wines. In such circumstances, the over-reliance on the later-maturing Cabernet Sauvignon grape is not ideal.

China is the sixth-largest producer of wine in the world, though in reality, it is difficult to know exactly how much wine it produces, since the figures are skewed by importation of large volumes of bulk wine that are blended with domestic products.

Among the hundreds of smaller operations, three giants dominate the domestic industry: Changyu, Dynasty and Great Wall (the latter owned by COFCO, the governments agricultural arm). Quality is not a pressing issue for the big three. They can appeal to Chinese consumers’ patriotic spirit, and their sales demonstrate the triumph of brand loyalty over product.

While these producers’ wines occasionally appear overseas, quality remains low.

Some remain optimistic that pockets of higher-quality will emerge; areas just beyond The Great Wall, looks particularly promising. But sadly – and realistically – China is not likely to become a serious producer of fine wine any time soon.