For China's Newly Affluent, Imported Wine Is De Rigueur

Chinese restaurants such as the high-end Tian Di Yi Jia, just off Tiananmen Square, offer wines that are "full flavored, rich in oak" and often sipped in private VIP rooms. Owner Robert Cho can recommend what goes best with marinated fresh abalone, hairy crab leg or yam with preserved plums.

When a secretary called from Shanghai earlier this month to make a reservation for her boss, an executive in the financial industry, Cho suggested the Chateau Chambeau Lussac St. Emilion, or, alternatively, the Chateau Gruaud-Larose Sarget de Gruaud-Larose St. Julien, which at $126 is the cheapest bottle on the menu. The most expensive is a Pomerol, a 1994 Petrus that sells for $2,154 a bottle.

"Half our Chinese guests don't know much about wine," Cho said. "They know Chateau Lafite, Chateau Margaux, but they don't know California or Australian wines. People know Lafite as a benchmark, like Rolls-Royce or Dior. . . . They buy wines like they buy watches and cars."

The other half are familiar with imported wines, Cho said, because "they study abroad, have a good position and know that wine is part of Western food culture."

Most bottled wine in China sells for less than $5 a bottle, a category that grew by about 19 percent between 2001 and 2005, according to recent figures from the organizers of the French-based wine trade show Vinexpo. Wine priced at more than $5 a bottle grew by 86 percent over the same period, while bottles that sold for more than $10 grew by 110 percent.

The role wine plays in enhancing people's status has made it a tool in the endless dinners that are an essential part of doing business in China.

"Face is important in China. Wine is part of the show," said Alex Remy, manager of the Beijing office for Sopexa, which promotes French food and agricultural products worldwide. "Lots of people buy wine for the status, not only what it brings to a person but also to the person you give it to."

In 2002, when Zhao Fan, a wine critic, first started hosting private tastings for friends and acquaintances, only seven people showed up. Now they're so popular that he has to limit attendance.

"Four years ago, people were from different walks of life, like electronic equipment companies, French insurance companies or media, and they all knew about wines. They earned about 7,000 to 8,000 yuan [$897 to $1,026] a month, which was quite a large amount at that time," said Zhao, who also teaches a popular wine appreciation course at China Agricultural University in Beijing.

"Now, more people come to tasting parties, but not all of them know that much about wine. Some just hold the bowl of the wine glass instead of the stem. They are from state-owned enterprises or they are university teachers or students."

While there are exceptions, many of China's hundreds of new wineries are not yet producing wine at a standard recognized in the West, according to Stephen Reiss, an Aspen-based wine educator who a decade ago was a member of the first U.S. wine delegation to China since 1949.

Since then, Chinese wine has become more expensive, but still has a long way to go. "The packaging and presentation elevates the price point, which further alienates the wine from its peers. It is not good at $5, so it is really not good at $20," Reiss said.

"On the political side, there is very little incentive to create quality over quantity. On the social side, criticism is hard to deliver, and harder to take, it seems," said Reiss, who is paid to critique Chinese wines. After delivering one report, he recalled, the Western liaison he was working with said: "I don't know how I will be able to use this. Could you rewrite it so it is not so critical?"