As the Chinese elite develops a taste for something more eclectic, can the fast-growing country go head to head against the vineyards of Tuscany?

The sudden boom in the Chinese market has diverse effects. Much like Abu Dhabi during its peak, China is seeing the sudden birth of a fast-moving bourgeois society. Luxury cars, expensive clothes, and of course, good food. Red wine, a drink attributed to high social functions, is quickly being gobbled up in China, with the Wall Street Journal reporting that after 155 million nine-liter cases in 2013 alone, China is now the number one consumer of the scarlet vino, overtaking France and Italy.

Like Us on Facebook

To cope with its demand, China started to manufacture wine themselves, with wineries located all over the country. Winemakers are experimenting with various landscapes available in their land, which include the foothills of the Himalayas and the deserts of the old Silk Road, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

The results are nothing but surprising: back in 2011, Helan Quingxue vineyard took the international trophy at the Decanter World Wine Awards, where it was commended for its suppleness, gracefulness, and ripe flavors. Other wineries such as Grace Vineyard beat other wines in a blond taste test. Cumulatively, this resulted in China becoming the sixth overall wine producer of the world.

However, despite innumerable milestones, the China-brand wine is still subpar in the eyes of an everyday Chinese consumer. Fifty percent of the wine sales in China are still produced by foreign brands, with Chinese vino producers still circling around the middle-to-low-end spectrum of the market, as reported by IB Times.

On the other hand, connoisseurs are sure that this is just a temporary setback since planting vines and getting the right wine takes time. In as little as five to ten years, the world could see a sudden demand for Chinese wine, and when that time comes, the vineyards of China are ready.

TagsChinese wine, Tuscany