China's growing thirst for wine is likely to drive fine wine prices higher over the next few decades.
The March 5, 2007 Newsweek (International edition) contains an article titled "Bordeaux meets Beijing" and the February 28, 2007 edition of the Wall Street Journal weighs in with its own story on the Chinese wine market titled "'People I know still put ice and juice in wine'" (WSJ online subscription required).
Here are some items drawn from these articles which grabbed my attention:
- Chinese per capita wine consumption doubled in the past 5 years but is still only 0.7 liters per person (equivalent to 1 bottle). In comparison, the U.S. is third in per capita consumption with 14.5 bottles per year (see my post: 92% of wine consumed by "core drinkers") while France and Italy are about the same with 63-64 bottles per capita consumption each.
- In 2005, China became one of the top 10 wine consuming nations (in absolute terms).
- Chinese wine imports in 2006 (2.2 million cases) doubled 2005's level (1.15 million cases). Since 2001, wine imports have grown from $32 million to $133 million. The WSJ story also states that "wine experts think that one day, the high end of China's wine market for imports could match America's, valued at over $2 billion."
- The Chinese government is actively encouraging wine consumption for health reasons over grain alcohols.
- Taxes on many wine imports fell from 120% in 2001 to 48% today.
- Wealthy Chinese buy the most recognized wine names (at very high prices) as a bit of a status symbol more than for the taste. Sounds like an opportunity for Robert Parker to publish a Chinese language edition of The Wine Advocate and encourage more experimentation!
