Chinese buyers shown a case for local wines
|
ON SHOW: Representatives enjoy a meal and a drop at Brokenwood Wines. – Picture by Kitty Hill |
One hundred Chinese representatives will visit more than 200 wineries in 16 regions across the country for the A+ Australian Wine – Vintage 2011 program.
Six delegates will visit Hunter wineries Tempus Two, Bimbadgen, Brokenwood, Tyrrell’s and McWilliams for a week-long tour of the region.
Brokenwood Wines general manager Geoff Krieger said China was by far the fastest growing export market of Australian wines.
‘‘There is no more powerful and evocative sales tool than to have them come kick the dirt here at the winery,’’ he said.
‘‘The Hunter Valley will no longer be a label on a bottle, they have touched the vines that produce the grapes that make the wine that is sold to China.’’
Mr Krieger said the wineries’ export market made up 15per cent of their total sales.
He said the strong Australian dollar was affecting the potential export market but China was one of the few countries that could afford to buy premium and super premium wines.
‘‘We are educating the Chinese buyers and wine professionals that Australia is more than producing bulk wines, we have high quality, regionally diverse wines,’’ he said.
Hunter Valley event co-ordinator Jo Thomas said the visit was about building the image of the Hunter Valley as a recognised quality wine region.
BRONZE WINNER
THE Hunter’s Tamburlaine Wines will receive a bronze partnership from the NSW government’s Sustainability Advantage Energy Saving Program in June for reducing its carbon pollution by 740 tonnes a year.