BEIJING - With its culture of liquor that has lasted for thousands of years, China is seeing more people converting to drinking grape wine.

Gate

"China is now the world's seventh largest consumer of wine in terms of volume. It is likely to become the sixth largest by 2014, " said Robert Beynat, Chief Executive of Vinexpo, a leading international wine and spirits exhibition.

The first session of Vinexpo was held in 1981 in Bordeaux in France. At that time, no Chinese wine brand was exclusively exhibited, said Beynat, who was promoting Vinexpo 2011 in Beijing. The expo is scheduled to be held in Bordeaux in June.

Dynasty, a grape wine brand in China, had its wine exhibited at a foreign booth, Beynat said. For some reason the wine, which was white, was not bottled. But this did not stop people from drinking it.

"It was the first time Chinese wine was tasted at the Vinexpo," he said.

Vinexpo began working with China at the end of the 1990s after Hong Kong's return to China.

Beynat said that in 1998, one year after Hong Kong's return, the Vinexpo was held in the city. "In fact, Hong Kong was a gate for selling grape wine at the beginning."

Surge

Over the years, China has seen its consumption of grape wine increasing. In 2009, the consumption of grape wine in China stood at nearly 1.16 billion bottles, up 104 percent from 2005.

One of the reasons for growth is improvement in productivity. China entered the top 10 list of grape wine producers in 2005.

Now, it is the world's seventh largest producer.

"The more you produce, the more you drink," Beynat said.

Another reason was a change in people's lifestyles. "People's wages are increasing and they are becoming more fashionable," Beynat said.

He recalled that drinking grape wine was at first considered a symbol of social status in China, and was often served at occasions like feasts or anniversaries.

Gradually, he noticed that while drinking grape wine became common among Chinese. People were not only drinking more, but also drinking better wines.

Although most of the grape wine consumed in China was domestic, and imported wine only accounted for 14.7 percent of the total consumption in 2009, Beynat pointed out that the increase of imported wine was remarkable.

"From 2005 to 2009, that rose by 392.99 percent," he said.

French wine was most welcome. "For every two bottles of grape wine, one was from France," Beynat said.

Now, China is among the 10 major importers of French wine. In 2004, however, China was not even on the list of top 20.

Culture

China has a profound liquor culture. Starting from ancient times, people have always considered liquor as a way to relax. Many famous poets like Li Bai were known for drinking a lot before composing poems.

In the classic novel "Outlaws of the Marsh," Wu Song, a professional in Chinese Kung-fu, drank 18 bowls of alcohol before beating a tiger to death barehanded.

Therefore, when Beynat came to China 20 years ago, he found that many people drank wine quickly in restaurants. "They said 'ganbei' (bottoms-up) and then the waiter filled the cups quickly, " he recalled.

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"I was astonished," Beynat said, "it was not the right way to drink wine."

Hu Yunyan, the curator of the Liquor Culture Museum in Zunyi city in southwest China's Guizhou province, believed that through the years, western liquor culture has been assimilated in the life of Chinese. Zunyi city is famous for Moutai, China's best-known liquor.

"It was because of the increase in the exchange between China and foreign people, as well as the popularity of the Internet," she said.

With the improvement of people's living standards, she said, Chinese people have attached more importance to their health.

"Therefore, grape wine, with lower alcoholic strength and promoted for having anti-aging properties, became popular among young people and women," she said.