Local wines will still dominate Chinese wine markets

In 2010 China overtook Britain as the world’s number one importer of French Bordeaux wines, but Sarah Kemp, publishing director of Decanter believes the Chinese will follow the trend of most wine producing countries and favour domestically produced wine over imports.

“If you look at Europe; in France it is French, in Spain it’s mainly Spanish and in Italy it’s mainly Italian.  It’s only in England where you’ve not had a domestic wine industry of any significance. We have been known for importing wine from all over the world… but a lot of countries that do have large acreage will drink their own wine and I think this is probably what is going to happen to China and other places in the world.”

Despite a dramatic improvement in the quality of Asian wines, Steven Spurrier says that established wines will withstand the rise of Asian produced varieties and European wine remains the benchmark of the wine world, due mainly to its diversity.

“The individuality of European wine, it beats anything else… the rationality and the individuality of wine is never ending.  I think that’s Europe’s strongest card, because of the variation between the vineyards.  You can walk 10 meters from one vineyard to another and the wine won’t be the same.”