Northern China favours “big flavours, big reds and big alcohol”. Canton in the South (just north of Hong Kong) prefer more delicate, refined flavours. The southwest, generally prefer wines with igher residula sugar and good acidity.
“China is so vast that even getting in with a private wine club would provide access to 30,000 VIP members, or a golf company with a series of clubs would introduce a local winery to hundreds of thousands of potential customers. Some third and fourth tier cities with their smaller populations (five to 10 million people) don’t yet have a single wine shop. There is so much opportunity.” It is important to focus, rather than view China is one market. The China Wine Awards grand tasting will pair each wine with one or several of China’s main twenty-one cuisines – very useful to both consumers and producers!
A wine Chinese educator addressing the New Zealand Winegrowers Exporters’ Forum in Marlborough , stresses that to be successful as exporters to China wineries needed to be very serious.
“You need to be committed, you need to work at it, visit regularly, be prepared to create a buzz, create an identity,” she said. “If you want a meaningful relationship then you need to do the legwork.”
