Trip to pitch Temecula wine in China is canceled

 trip by Temecula-area vintners and Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone to China that was planned for November but then postponed has been canceled, a county official said Monday.

The six-day excursion to an international wine conference in Hong Kong and the city of Shenzhen was meant to lay the groundwork for Temecula Wine Country wines to crack the extremely lucrative Chinese market. Chinese wine sales jumped 20 percent to $2.8 billion in 2008.

But in an e-mail, Riverside County Economic Development Agency spokesman Tom Freeman wrote that in light of the poor economy, Stone and other county officials thought it best to cancel the trip.

"While Chairman Stone remains committed to making the trip at his own expense, it is tough to ask our private sector partners to make the investment of time and funds when quarterly sales tax revenues reflect a significant dip in business in wine country," Freeman wrote.

The trip was to cost $2,588 per person in November, with everyone including Stone paying their way.

Bill Wilson, president of the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association, said Temecula wineries are in contact with Chinese representatives about doing business.

At this time, the Chinese want wine at a producton level and price that's not realistic, said Wilson, owner of Wilson Creek Winery.

But he remains hopeful that Temecula wines can be sold in China.

"I'm not going to throw the baby out with the bath water right now," he said. "It's just not fiscally feasible for us to comply with what their original requests are."