Ontario wineries wooing Chinese consumers

e recent opening of a Canada-focused wine store in China is just the latest example of the country's growing appetite for vino from the Great White North, say Ontario vintners.

Over the weekend, a group of three Canadian businessmen opened Maple Leaf Wines in the city of Zhengzhou, the capital of China's Henan Province. Ontario's Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sandra Pupatello and Tourism Minister Michael Chan attended the store's opening.

The shop sells Pelee Island Winery's table and ice wines and plans to expand to other Ontario wines in the future.

But the idea of selling Canadian wine in China isn't a new one.

Sales of Canadian wine -- in particular icewine - have been steadily growing in recent years.

China is among the key export markets for Canadian wineries, second only to the United States. In the fiscal year ending August 2010, Canadian wineries sales were $4.3 million in the Chinese market, up from $2.5 million in 2007.

The hugely-populated country, with more than 1.3 billion people, has a growing middle class hungry for luxury items from abroad, said Jamie Slingerland, director of viticulture with Pillitteri Estates Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

"China is massive for us right now," Slingerland said. "It's massive."

Pillitteri has been shipping wine to China for more than a decade. The major wine exporter ships 40% of its annual 60,000 case production abroad. About 60 to 75% of Pillitteri's exports -- more than 14,000 cases -- are sent to seven Chinese provinces and 120 stores annually, Slingerland said.

The Chinese are drawn in particular to ice wine, a sweet dessert wine made from pressed frozen grapes, he said. Ice wine is regarded as something of luxury item and status symbol for the burgeoning "nouveau riche," he said.

But China is a tough market, Slingerland said. It's hard to find business people there that honour business contracts; and counterfeit ice wine bottles masquerading as Canadian products are still a problem, he said.

But it's a worthwhile and profitable market, he said.

"China is a very important customer for Pillitteri Estates Winery," Slingerland said.

"We see that as a growing market for us as well as the wine industry."

As the Ontario wine industry grows, wineries have to look for markets beyond Canadian borders, said Ed Madronich, chairman of the Wine Council of Ontario.

Wineries are always going to want to focus on local wine consumers and grow sales at home, he said.

"As we grow as an industry, and we continue to get recognition globally, there's going to be people demanding our wines in other places. I think when you create demand, there are going to be wineries there that are going to want to fill that demand."

Madronich, who owns Jordan's Flat Rock Cellars, said the new Ontario wine store in China is an asset to the industry as a whole.

"I think the more opportunities that are out there for consumers to buy Ontario wines the better, right? For me it's not just China but it's everywhere in the world."