As China's wine drinkers grow more savvy, they are demanding better quality

I remember 25 years ago when the Hong Kong Wine Club and the International Wine Academy jointly organized the first wine seminar in Guangzhou. I had to rush out to find a bunch of grapes to show our audience how wines are made.

Then we saw the explosion in the 1990s as the first red wine craze took place in China, but that passion was as fleeting as a one-night stand.

There were many reasons for that, one of them being that consumers were unfamiliar with red wine's tannic, sour taste.

Importers also contributed to the failure because most wines were poorly stored or served, so consumers drank oxidized wines.

Another reason for this failure was the number of unscrupulous importers who took advantage of uneducated consumers who based their purchases on appearance.

A simple table wine with a nicely printed label costing $1 could be sold for 10 or 50 times more in China. At one stage, everyone was trying to import a container or 10. The hangover effect was that both the Customs and commercial warehouses ended up with thousands of containers of wine. Some remained unsold 10 years after the end of this craze as consumers walked away knowing they had been duped. It was during this period that Chinese wines started to appear on the market to fill the vacuum. Wine drinkers turned their focus on local brands with labels they could read, and understand, especially if they were sold by a reputable Chinese company.

Some of the country's biggest brands were born about then, but unfortunately there were not enough vines to provide the grapes needed to meet the demand.

In fact, what was labeled as Chinese wine was produced from imported bulk wines blended with local juices to make it more fruity. However, some imported wines went straight into bottles and were sold as Chinese wines.

This practice continues today, judging by the latest figures on imported bulk wine issued by Chinese Customs last month. For better or worse, a whole new generation of wine consumers has been born.

Wine is fast becoming part of everyday life in China. Lifestyles are changing as people travel overseas more and return with an educated palate after tasting wines from other countries.

These enlightened consumers now find they can no longer accept what was offered domestically, especially when the imported wines now cost a fraction of what they used to.

One reason for that is that since China has been a member of the World Trade Organization, import duty on wines has steadily decreased.

Another important factor is the authenticity of what is in the bottle. Fortunately, there is a group of small producers who respect the role of nature and geography in producing wines in China. They subscribe to the traditional methods as their peers in other wine regions worldwide have done, and consumers, in China and elsewhere, are recognizing that.

Much of it is due to wine professionals from countries such as Australia, Chile, France, Germany and Spain who collaborate with their Chinese partners to help bring the quality of Chinese wines to internationally accepted levels. Food safety is another huge concern, but China now boasts the country's first traceable wine, with the whole process certified by both international agricultural and food safety institutes.

I am not alone in believing China can not just produce good wines, but world-class vintages, if its vineyards are managed properly. Among those who agree with that is Sergio Carlei, one of the best Australian winemakers and a frequent visitor to the vineyards in Xinjiang.

At the moment, imported wines are making great inroads into China at every price level.

Because of the increase of imported wines, there was in fact less demand for grapes by wine producers in China last year. If this continues, the Chinese wine industry will drift further away from being sustainable. It takes years to manage a vineyard and grow good grapes if the weather is good every year.

Without good grapes there will be no good wines. This means imported wines will eventually become the major source of wines for Chinese consumers.

Chinese wines may not disappear, but once an industry loses its identity, it will take years or decades for it to recover, if it does at all.

Right now the group of small vineyard owners and wine producers is playing an almost historic mission in maintaining integrity for the Chinese wine industry and the country's wine drinkers so that it lives up to the dictum in vino veritas.

We owe them the support they need.

The author is a wine writer, consultant and vineyard owner.

(China Daily European Weekly 03/07/2014 page19)