Wine market shrugs off slump as consumers raise their glasses

By WU YIYAO (China Daily) Updated: 2016-05-16 08:19

China's wine market has steadily recovered the path to a healthy and sustainable growth.CHINA DAILY

"In the past, a corporate client used to buy, say, 100 crates of a wine label every month at the same price. Such wine would have the same taste, and people would still enjoy it over and over again. The occasion, too, would be the same usually: the business banquet. It was like making uniforms.

"But now, individual consumers' choices are more like custom-made garments. They differ from person to person. Drinkers choose their wine based on their own taste and the occasion. Some consumers even pair their wines with the films they watch or the music they listen to," said Zhang Meijun, a Suzhou-based imported wine distributor.

For their part, traders encourage consumers to try as many wine varieties as possible through a wide range of events, education programs, and information-sharing through online and mobile channels.

For instance, Pudao Wines, a subsidiary of Australian retail giant Woolworths Liquor Group, has been establishing wine boutiques in China.

Its boutiques provide fine wines for a fair price to private clients. They also provide wine-related services.

Similarly, ASC Fine Wine, one of the largest fine wine importers in China, has been deploying more resources into online retail channels. It has its own online platform. In addition, it operates e-commerce stores on online marketplaces such as Tmall.com.

ASC Fine Wine adjusts its prices and products to keep them in a range that is attractive to an increasing number of consumers.

Another example is Tokyo-based Enoteca, a specialist wine shop. It often hosts wine-tasting events and other programs at its China stores to deliver more information to consumers and share stories about growing grapes, which are peppered with details about geographical features of the wine regions and heritage of wineries.