Agne Blazyte recently published that Wine, an alcoholic beverage produced from fermented grapes, has been produced in China since around Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), when high quality grapes came to this region. Before that, rice wine, beer and other alcoholic beverages were most commonly consumed among Chinese.
Today, rice wine is still the most popular alcoholic drink in China, however, grape wine is recently becoming a trendy symbol of social status, luxury, as well as “healthy alcohol”.
With a growing middle-class, disposable income and globalization, the wine market re-emerged in China in the 1990s and already became the world’s fourth-largest in terms of revenue after the United States, France, and Italy. The domestic wine production has expanded immensely: China has produced over 900 million liters of grape wine in 2018 and had the second largest vineyard area worldwide. Most prominent vineyards are located in Ningxia, Shandong, Hebei, Jilin, Shanxi, and Shaanxi provinces as well as around Beijing and Tianjin. Cabernet sauvignon grapes, chardonnay, shiraz and some Chinese native grape varieties are widely used among local winemakers. In 2019, China ranked seventh for the number of medals received in Concours Mondial global wine competition. Many of such product quality achievements are due to collaborative foreign partnerships that have been essential in China’s wine production industry. Western (especially French) winemakers are investing in joint ventures in China, bringing in the knowledge and helping to put Chinese wines on the global wine map.
Wine retail sales value in China 2013-2022 Published by Agne Blazyte, Mar 12, 2020 This statistic depicts the total retail sales value of wine in China in selected years from 2013 to 2018 and a forecast for 2022. In 2018, the retail sales of wine in China amounted to approximately 73.5 billion U.S. dollars and was forecasted to reach nearly 123.6 billion U.S. dollars by 2022. Total retail sales value of wine in China from 2013 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)
Besides the expanding production, the Chinese market has witnessed a prominent growth in wine sales and consumption. The annual per capita wine sales and consumption remains low compared to the rest of the world, however, the demand is rapidly increasing. Therefore, China relies heavily on wine imports. In 2018, it was the fourth largest wine importer in the world after the U.S., UK and Germany. The biggest volume of imported bottled wine comes from France, yet Georgian, Australian and Chilean wine imports are growing the fastest.
Wine consumers in China are mostly younger urban population. Red wine is often considered as healthy, especially one with a lower alcohol content. Despite the lower prices of several very popular Chinese wine brands such as Changyu and Great Wall, the majority of wine consumers still prefer foreign brands, particularly French, and are becoming increasingly selective. Wine research and purchasing is often done online, on e-commerce platforms such as JD.com, Taobao and Tmall.
