Could we soon be comparing wines from Paris to those from Beijing? Celia Hatton wrote:

• There is demand for good wine in China – Chinese are the second biggest buyers of top claret after Germany.
• Currently half of all wine imported into China comes from France.
• Yet China has long had a domestic wine industry. Fifteen years ago when experts tasted Chinese wines they concluded that it tasted like cough syrup.
• Since then things have improved – in 2011 a Chinese winery beat French rivals to win an international gold medal.
• China is now the eight largest producer of wine and is expected to climb another two spots in the next couple years.
• Yet China may never unseat the top wine producers. Despite its size there is no good region in China to grow grapes. Those that are dry enough are too cold in the winter.
• This shortage of quality wine grapes means that most Chinese wine is made of low quality grapes that aren’t sweet enough to produce interesting flavours

Read more about the top producers of wine in China, why there is reason to be optimistic, and more over here.

Source: BBC