China’s Wine Market Bubbles, but Not With Champagne

The West may toast birthdays and weddings with Champagne, but China still hasn’t found a taste for the bubbly, a new study finds.

China, including Hong Kong, is the world’s fifth-largest wine market, and its thirst for wine is on the rise, according to the report released by wine-trade fair Vinexpo and compiled by International Wine & Spirit Research. Chinese drinkers consumed 159.3 million 9-liter cases of wine in 2011, representing a 142% increase from 2007. What’s more, the IWSR forecasts growth to increase by another 40% over the next three years.

Of all those bottles, 99.5% were red, white or rose wines. That means just 0.5% — or one out of 200 bottles – contained bubbles. “The Chinese ignore the sparkling wines right now,” said Robert Beynat, chief executive of Vinexpo, in an interview in Hong Kong.

To compare, 7% of all the wine consumed in the world in 2011 was sparkling, and the category is set to increase another 9% by 2016. Global consumption of non-sparkling wines, on the other hand, is predicted to increase by just 5% over the same period.

According to Mr. Beynat, Chinese consumers have yet to discover sparkling wines such as Champagne, Cava and Prosecco, mainly because of a lack of marketing in the mainland. He predicts that the major Champagne brands such as Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Taittinger will lead a breakthrough in coming years.

http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2013/03/08/chinas-wine-market-bubbles-but-not-with-champagne/