Mihalis Boutaris expects his new wines, to be produced in Gansu, to be comparable to some of the best French wines. Mark Graham / for China Daily

Winemaker from Greece taps growing Chinese market

Mihalis Boutaris has grand plans for China that involve starting a vineyard from scratch ... and introducing people to the finer wines of his home country. Boutaris, who is from one of Greece's oldest and most illustrious wine-making families, sees little prospect of short-term improvement in his country, which is mired in economic woes. So he decided to look around for other opportunities, eventually settling on China.

The big-thinking Bouratis, who was educated at Harvard University, does not do things by halves. He found a Chinese joint venture partner, drew up plans for a winery in far-western Gansu province, announced plans for a wine e-commerce platform and moved his family to the eastern-seaboard city of Shanghai.

It has meant a massive change of lifestyle and business culture for Boutaris, tempered by his conviction that China is the place to be right now for any expansion-minded company.

"You have to look at the macro context when you see what Greece is like today - I wanted to be part of the solution, not the problem," says Bouratis, 38, a fifth-generation winemaker whose family has six vineyards in Greece and one in France.

"Sometimes you see a train passing in front of you and you just jump on it. Because that decision often determines the difference between succeeding and failing to meet your destiny."

The winemaker set up a joint venture with the established Mogao Wines to produce vintages under the Sunshine Valley label until the new vineyard is fully operational, in several years.

The current wines, made with grapes that Mogao harvests, are Sunshine Valley pinot noir that retails for $30 (24 euros) with the cabernet sauvignon selling for $45. Total production is about 100,000 bottles annually.

The long-term plan is for an entirely new vineyard, Domaine Celeste, where Boutaris is hard at work getting ready to plant grapes and building production facilities. It is expected that the 100-hectare facility near the Gobi desert town of Tianshui, will make its first wines in 2015.

"I think every country takes pride in its product, and I think in 10 years we will be able to make wine that will compare with some of the best French ones," Boutaris says.

"My partners provided ground support and I gave them some celestial tips, hence we can make wines that actually taste good and have found a place where we can actually grow great grapes.

"China has two cardinal constraints as regards winemaking: In the east and south, it's too wet and warm in the summer; in the west and north, it's too cold in the winter.

"Our location is right at the center of China, the closest you can get to a temperate zone. It's where the monsoons kiss the Gobi.

"Tianshui has rich history, one of the rarely found pure environments and, surprisingly, a microclimate that is conducive to prime fruit growing. Summer rain is a manageable threat and winter frost is not dangerous, so vines do not need to be buried."

The second plan of his platform is to make Chinese more aware of Greek wines, in particular those produced by the family company Boutari, selling them, and other wines from around the world, through wholesale channels in his new home base of Shanghai and via a soon-to-be-launched website.

Boutaris concedes that Greek wines once had an awful reputation that was, in general, justified.

During the 1970s and 1980s, their main asset was affordability, not taste - cheap plonk served by budget restaurants and consumed at student parties.

But a new generation of expert winemakers trained overseas has significantly raised the standard of wines from Greece during the past decade. Boutaris himself is one of them, trained at the University of California in the intricacies of vinification.

"There has been a revolution, and the world is now beginning to catch on; the Greek varieties are now on the map. You now have upscale Greek cuisine, and the wines have started to get onto wine lists in restaurants and hotels.

"China offers a big opportunity because they are tasting some of the finest wines; the impression they have is that Greek wine is good. The market here is booming and there is a challenge to tackle it. Wherever I go in China people ask me for Greek wines."

Boutaris is certainly a walking expert on the topic. He is the fifth generation winemaker with Boutari, which was founded in 1879.

The company, which has six wineries in different parts of Greece and also an organic vineyard, Domaine de Mayrac, in the foothills of the French Pyrenees, makes about a million cases of wine a year and has 300 employees on the payroll.

Recently, Boutaris took part in the Vinexpo trade fair in Hong Kong, attended by 15,000 visitors from 24 countries, with most of them in search of potential distributors for their products in China.

Boutaris found himself performing a dual role at the fair, pushing Greek-made wines and raising awareness of his new China-made wines that are due to be produced at Domaine Celeste.

The entrepreneur was also much sought after for his advice on doing business in China.

"I think people respect me here in China because I have a long-term view; we are not here for a quick buck. Of course it is a constant struggle. Language is a big problem, and sometimes the way of doing things is as a whole; it is not linear. You have to get all the parts there before things can move, and you can get frustrated. I have to remember that I am a guest here as well," he says.

"Greece was too confining for me. So I fell under the gravity force of the wine boom here in China."

For China Daily

(China Daily 08/10/2012 page27)