When China began to drink wine it was red, expensive Bordeaux that was sought after and most preferably Château Lafite-Rothschild. And the bottles were given away as gifts. This was some years ago now, and the Chinese market has evolved a lot. Now there is a new generation of wine drinkers in China. These are young Chinese who are buying and drinking wine. The wine they drink is still imported, and often French, but much cheaper.
They have probably learned to drink wine at business dinners, but then continue to do so in their spare time. And because they pay the wines themselves they naturally look at the price. This has opened up the Chinese market to more normal priced wines. And it shows in the French export figures. Both “ordinary” Bordeaux wines and Languedoc wines are selling very well today in China.
Wine Intelligence has made a study of the Chinese wine consumers: Wine Intelligence China Portraits 2015 (pdf).
