Press

jancisrobinson.com (Jancis Robinson)

Chinese wine drinkers turn to imports

According to Jim Boyce of Grape Wall of China, 'Many people think Chinese wines have a huge advantage over imported wines because the latter, except in the case of free-trade agreements, face about 48% in duties and taxes. But the tariff is only 14%.

Meininger's Wine Business International (Jim Boyce)

Wine’s first-tier city in China

What a difference a century makes. In 1916, in a lengthy Department of Commerce report on China, Thomas Sammons, the US consul in Shanghai, wrote less than a page about the wine market. The lone notable producer was Changyu, imports were just over $600,000.00 the previous year, and, Sammons noted, optimistically, “Small quantities of wine imported from the United States, and American clarets especially, have been much in evidence recently, being found in any retail wine store.” Sammons would need far more space – and zeroes – for today’s market.

China Daily

“Casual drinkers cheer development of local wines”, Zhang Zefeng

It's the Grape Wall Challenge, one of the few Chinese wine-tasting events that puts the spotlight on Chinese wine consumers instead of oenological experts. This year, the eighth annual event took place at Pop-Up Beijing around the Chinese New Year.

Bloomberg

“The Maker of Moët & Chandon Is Sweet on China”, Bruce Einhorn

“We are seeing a fundamental change in the market,” says Boyce, who featured 12 sparkling wines in a Beijing tasting competition last December. “The rise of the taste-based consumer is really going to have an impact on sparkling wine sales.”

The Beijinger

“Chinese or French?: Maovember Blind Wine Tasting Thursday at Café de la Poste”, Tracy Wang

"It was tough for people to tell the wines apart, but we had a lot of fun trying," said Maovember committee member Jim Boyce "This year should be even better, because we have some nice gems from Xinjiang, Ningxia, and Shandong in the lineup."

El Tiempo (EFE)

“¿Terminaremos bebiendo vinos ‘made in China’?”, Paloma Almoguera

“En China hay dos factores: uno es el valor que se le dé al vino y otro, la calidad. Durante mucho tiempo fue considerado solo un regalo para agasajar o impresionar, pero ahora se está empezando a apreciar más por sus propias cualidades”, dice.

Financial Times

“Chile: Turning copper into wine”, Lucy Hornby

A similar sense of indignation inspired Jim Boyce, Chinese wine’s greatest cheerleader. His Grape Wall of China blog promotes the best of the country’s wines. The foreign journalists arriving in China before the 2008 Olympics provoked his ire. “A lot of people started talking about fake wine, or mixing Coke with Lafite, and I thought, that’s not what I am seeing. There was all this negative press. Now it’s almost gone the other way. There are too many overly optimistic expectations.”

The Beijinger

“Grape Wall Challenge Pits Bubblies Against Each Other”, Jim Boyce

The consumers/judges first tried their hand at opening some bottles, with the results ranging from a smooth pfft to a more cannon-esque pop. They then tried wines from five nations – Australia, France, Germany, Italy, and South Africa – and scored each as “love it," “like it," “dislike it," or “hate it." The wines were all inexpensive options, mostly priced below RMB 100, and handled by distributors with national reach in order to increase the odds that consumers will be able to find them.