I got the hint, said yes and submitted my details in an appropriate c.v. to the government and hey presto, it looks like I'm going there for 2 or 3 months.
China is a huge wine producing country, a fact unknown to most people, has been growing grapes for 6,000 years and has been producing wine for a couple of thousand years. With a population of over a billion and a third people even though the per capita consumption of wine is low at less than a litre per head (compared to NZ and australia at over 20 litres per head) still accounts for consumption of over 126 million cases per year which is growing at nearly 20% per year. Things are rolling. The new Chinese consumer is becoming more discerning, more worldly and, through greater affluence is spending more on luxury items.
Most of the wine consumed is made in China (90%) and of this mostly is red wine (75%) which is growing at a faster rate than white wine off the much larger base. Interestingly enough there is almost a 50:50 split between off-trade (take home) and on-trade (drink in bars and restaurants). This is radically different than in New Zealand which has a 80:20 split in favour of off-trade. Wine consumption in China is seen to be fashionable and sophisticated and is attracting more of the upwardly mobile younger people, male and female, whereas their affluent parents would have consumed cognacs and whiskies. There is still a long way to go yet though in wine-drinking practice as by far the majority of premium wines are drunk at banquets where drinking games still predominate, and off-trade by way of gifting where the more expensive the item the grater kudos can be achieved.
That said though the optimum reach for wine would mean attracting rural drinkers to buy and consume it but this is unlikely to happen in our lifetime. Out of the 1.3 billion however, it is calculated that there are at least 200 million potential consumers. This makes China a potential wine market 10 to 20 times better than any other country including the USA.
There are a lot of unusual practices that need to be sorted out though. The traditional look, colour, style of wine etc. has not necessarily applied in China in the past so some pretty unusual names, packaging, colours etc. have abounded.
No doubt you have heard stories about fine wines being mixed with Coca Cola and other soft-drinks. Sprite apparently is very popular. Richard (of RBB) would be in his element - he who used to mix the great Chateau Margaux ( from many a fine vintage) with lemonade.
The wine Guy tells me of being told by the general manager of Opus One (one of the most expensive US wines at at least 100 USD a bottle) that when he was in China on a selling trip he telephoned back home to Mondavi the boss to say that sales were going well. He was at a dinner party and the buyers were consuming copious amounts of Opus One from magnums. He said to his boss "you'll like to see how much they are drinking and the orders that they are placing but you won't like how they are drinking it. They mix it with Coca Cola!"
Anyway, if the paperwork and visa's etc. are approved
I'll be off sometime in June.
Hui tou jian!
2 comments:
Well done, old boy!
Sounds really exciting!
As the ginger bastard would say,
"Me how."
Well done TC, sounds interesting and exciting.
Is this with the NZ government or the Chinese?
My beloved is from Singapore, and she says to be very careful, and don't trust anyone in Chinese government.
Have fun, and take plenty of clean underwear.
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