Chinese snap up Aussie vines in hunt for top drop(1)
China is Australia's fourth-largest wine market and the value of exports to the Asian giant has exploded in recent years (AFP, Greg Wood)
POKOLBIN, Australia — The coal-rich hills of Australia's Hunter Valley have long fed China's steel furnaces but the winemaking region is riding a fresh boom as the Asian power's middle classes toast their new wealth.
Mining delegations are being replaced by wine enthusiasts as China's upwardly mobile millions get the taste for an expensive drop, and Australia's vintners are turning their efforts towards the lucrative new market.
"Every buyer that I have on my books right now is Chinese nationality, every one," said Cain Beckett, a real estate broker in the Hunter Valley.
"There are parallels with the heady days when everyone was just buying everything and spending cash hand over fist -- that hasn't happened for 10 or 15 years so it's interesting times."
Beckett sold eight vineyards to Chinese investors in the latter months of 2011, some of which had been on the market since the global financial crisis and went for Aus$120,000 (US$129,000) above asking price as buyers haggled.
The wine is destined for hotels, restaurants and bottle shops across China.
Times have been tough in the renowned winemaking district about 150 kilometres (93 miles) north of Sydney and Beckett said selling "eight of those at a time is pretty shocking, it's blown us away".
"We would have averaged less than one a month over the last year so it's a pretty big trend," he told AFP.
China is Australia's fourth-largest wine market and the value of exports to the Asian giant has exploded in recent years, from a little over Aus$100 million in 2008 to more than Aus$250 million in 2011.
Australia is second only to France in terms of wine exports to China by both volume and value.
Lucy Anderson, Asia director for the government-backed industry group Wine Australia, said overall consumption was increasing but growth was especially notable at "higher price points" as tastes matured.
"I think the Chinese wine market is incredibly complex, however, I would describe it as rapidly developing, not emerging," Anderson said.
