The last ten years: China

If we look back to 2006 and consider how mainland China’s wine market has changed, it’s first worth considering just how young that market was. By 2006, the imported wine market was barely 15 years old and Chinese wine production, though expanded in the 1980s, had not yet made the leaps in quality that some Chinese wineries have achieved of late.

In the early-to-mid-1990s, although the Chinese government was already importing wine, only David Henderson’s Montrose, Don St. Pierre Jr’s ASC Fine Wines, Robert Shen’s Aussino and Pernod Ricard China had really made in-roads in the import sector. By 2006, Montrose was not the force it once was and Torres China (established 1997) and Summergate (1999) had garnered significant market share, along with the likes of East Meets West (2003) and smaller specialist importers like Ruby Red (2006). The overall market (around 90%) was still Chinese wine, though the 10% of imports had high value versus volume; the picture now is closer to 80% versus 20%. France reigned supreme, as it still does by volume and value today, with Australia and Chile beginning to carve out niches for themselves. Fast forward to 2016 and Australia and Chile have closed the gap meaningfully on France.

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