Readers of Globowines probably know that one of Mir Global Marketing LLC’s wine brands which have attracted the most attention and excitement in consumers in China have been our Friends Canned Wine. The great value and quality of Chilean wine combined with some good branding design and marketing have helped get our company attention.
It was not until recent that consumers started to give us compliments about how wine in a can could also be a great sell in China and around the world because of the environmental benefits of wine in a can.
If you go on a outdoor adventure and want to toast to a glass of wine in the middle of the wilderness, you will undoubtedly think it a hindrance to carry a heavy glass bottle of wine with you. Furthermore, what do you do with the then empty glass bottle? You must either take it back with you, or dispose of it and dirty the earth. Well with a can of wine you can simply crush the can and slip it into a side pocket in your bag.
Few people in China acknowledged Chile as a wine producing nation of any stature. The Chilean trade commission teamed up with Ogilvy Public Relations to change the situation with an informative online campaign.
Background
China offers huge potential for the wine industry, but being a young market, it is also full of confusion. A lack of knowledge often leads consumers to default to French wine and high prices to ensure quality while demonstrating the desired status that goes with drinking wine.
Aim
Recognizing the potential of the China market, Chile’s trade commission in Shanghai, ProChile, set out to help consumers understand that there is more to choosing wine than the price tag, and to present Chilean wine as an attractive, more affordable alternative to premium European wines.
As the winter season rages on, don’t forget one of the best ways to keep warm during the chilly season: Curling up in front of a roaring fire with a thick woolen blanket and a big goblet of hot mulled wine in your hand.
This being China, however, you may have to substitute the wine for a shot of erguotou, but worry not, because the Chinese market for wine (a daily staple of most Westerners’ diet) has been skyrocketing along with the rest of the Chinese economy.
Though in the eyes of many independent wine importers, restauranteurs and connoisseurs, attitudes toward wine in China still have a long way to go if they’re to match the ethusiaism commonly associated with French tipplers.
Guesses are, the concept of Chinese wine, taste, and design coinciding as a single concept never crosses one’s mind. A pretty smart guess. However, examining historic Chinese wine labels sheds some light on a unique design oriented past.
Not too long ago, Chinese wine connoisseurs had a diverse range of wine selections with amazingly intricate and detailed design packaging. But after foreign imported wines began entering the Chinese market, many of these wine brands died off, along with their special wine design aesthetic.
Wines of the New World have stolen the spotlight at this years Decanter World Wine Awards in Covent Garden, London. Of the 24 international trophies, 15 went to New World, 9 to the old world.
“Chile has proven itself a producer of some of the finest Sauvignon, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Cabernet blends in the world,” writes Adam Lechmere of Decanter.com.
Other highlights from the event include:
International Trophies for Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Noir and Bordeaux Varietals all went to Chile at a glittering dinner in the Floral Hall at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden.
The trophy for best Sauvignon Blanc Over £10 went to Undurraga’s TH from San Antonio, which judges described as ‘Crisp, herbal, grassy and zesty, appealing elegant and expressive.’
Cono Sur’s Riesling won the Under £10 in that category, for its Bio Bio Valley Reserva 2008, with its ‘racy nose of lime, honey, grapefuit and ripe peach with hints of mineral and kerosene’.
And for the fourth time in the past five years the Red Single Varietal trophy Under £10 went to an Argentinian Malbec: this year, the Malbec aka Rodolfo Sadler from Opi Sadler in Mendoza.
During Mir Global’s recent promotional trip in China I was lucky enough to be enlightend about North-Eastern China’s drinking habits. Dongbei ren as they are called in Mandarin seem to love to drink.
I’ve copy and pasted a few excerpt for your viewing pleasure and I recommend checking out the full article by clicking here or on one of the other various links I’ve provided in this post.
Deep in the cellars of a sprawling industrial complex in China’s northern Hebei province, a row of giant steel vats runs as far as the eye can see. At first glance, they seem to be just another massive manufacturing plant in China’s northern industrial heartland. But the vats in this cellar do not hold chemicals or dyes. Each container holds some 1,000 tonnes of grapes, and this plant in Hebei’s Huailai County is at the heart of China’s wine revolution.
A local girl serves wine to greet college volunteers in Guiyang Railway Station Guiyang, capital of southwest China’s Guizhou Province. Photo: Xinhua
In China, even the business of wine, that most refined of indulgences, is all about quantity. The country now has the world’s fastest growing market for wine, with an estimated 600 million consumers. In 2007, Chinese wine consumption was estimated at a huge 800 million bottles. (India’s annual consumption is around 10 million bottles.)
The import of high-end European wines has been steadily rising in the affluent southern cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou. Now, more high-end boutique wines, set up as collaborations with European houses, have begun to emerge such as Grace Vineyards in Shanxi, which was set up by Spain’s well-known Torres wine house.
Did you know that wine is produced throughout Latin America? Chile and Argentina have been able to successfully break into the international market but they are by no means the only players in the market.
A few months ago Sophie Kevany, a journalist for Decanter based in Lima, contacted me and explained she was writing an article on South American wine harvests.
[Courtesy of http://www.robgroh.com/maps.htm]
I was immediately interested due to a focus of her article being on wines from countries other than South America’s traditional producers. Her research has yielded a incredibly informative article, which you can access through clicking here.
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In Brazil sparkling wine exports were up 18% in value for the first three months, with much of the wine going to America and Germany, Wines from Brazil said
Overall exports were also positive. Brazil aims to export US$6m this year, with US$2.3m already confirmed for January to April.
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At the higher end there was also positive news. In Peru, Tacama ? which produces wines in the $10 to $40 bracket retail – said export values were up 10% in the first quarter.
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Click here to access Sophie Kevany’s article in its entirety
Click here to check out Decanter.com — a great resource for keeping up to date with developments and new trends in the wine industry
Click here to follow Decanter.com’s news feed on Twitter
China’s wine imports are slowing reports HKTDC in this article. Wine imports increased a incredible 100% between 2006-2007 but slowed between 2008-2009, growing only 36%. None the less, total imports reached a impressive 6,389,439 cases, or 76,673,268 bottles of wine, making China the world’s largest wine import market (once again according to this HKTDC article).
Despite the slow down, the macro picture of China’s wine market is still overwhelming positive for wine exporters, especially for lower cost producers in the Southern Hemisphere.
The challenge for Argentinean and Chilean producers will be to figure out a way in which to take advantage of a more conservative and cost conscious Chinese consumer in the midst of the global economic downturn.
The HKTDC article, is of the opinion that the biggest winner from slowing wine imports will be China’s domestic producers. While this may be partially true, Mir Global Marketing Co., attributes the rise in the consumption of domestically produced Chinese wine to other far more significant market factors.
1) The global slowdown has forced consumers around the world to cut back on luxury spending and to be more cost conscious. For the Chinese wine consumer who has yet to develop their wine pallet and is exploring wine for their first time, it makes sense they would economically rationalize to spend 20 rmb on a Chinese bottle versus 120 rmb on a French bottle.
2) Wine demand in China can partially be attributed to the symbolism behind wine. As the great American author Ernest Hemingway once said, “Wine is the most civilized thing in the world.” If you are a Chinese consumer who has yet to develop your personal wine preferences and are trying to network in the business or political world where it is a good thing to appear “sophisticated,” you might be able to accomplish this with a Chinese bottle of wine. So, why invest in a expensive French or Italian bottle of wine?
Although, if a lower-middle class university student was about to meet with the head of Google’s Recruiting Office in Beijing, and had never tasted wine in his/her life, I think it would justify dipping into your savings for a French bottle of wine. But, if you’re simply going out for a nice drink with some friends on a Friday night to the Beijing’s bar district, splitting a bottle of French wine when you don’t know what you’re tasting will not be a common site.
To further explain:
A considerable amount of wine demand in China is generated from a new elite class of consumers with considerable spending power who can afford expensive wines and liquors. This includes, the rising class of sophisticated, metropolitan consumers in cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Businessmen and women. Politicians. Wealthy university students. Chinese who have lived abroad. And of course, foreigners living or visiting China.
However, the majority of China’s new wine consumers can not afford to indulge in relatively expensive bottles of wine, especially in times of economic uncertainty. What is more likely to occur is the new middle class consumers in 2nd and 3rd tier Chinese cities like Harbin, Dalian, Suzhou, Chongqing, Kunming, Taiyuan, etc will attempt to emulate (the best they can) China’s new class of rising elites.
This has been the case in societies around the world since the dawn of civilization.
The main difficulty for Argentine and Chilean producers at the moment is convincing the very brand conscious Chinese to trust the quality of their products. France remains synonymous with quality when it comes to wine, while wines from Italy, Australia and Chile have had to struggle for years to build a trusting image with Chinese consumers.
Opportunity has come knocking at the door. Before you answer, just make sure you and your company are ready.
“China has always been the biggest market of wine imports globally. However, the situation is changing. With the rise of China’s domestic wine production, China’s import of wine is on a downward turn.
After world renowned brands Hennessy, Remy Martin and Martell, Courvoisier’s Napoleon wine, one the four top-class brands of wine in the world has announced its formal entry into the Chinese market. Not long ago, Hennessy announced the debut of its Iridescence, a world classic type X.O. on the China market, alleging that China was its biggest consumption market for the first time.
Although various brands of imported wine products have poured into China’s market, the import growth has slowed down. According to statistics from the customs, China’s import of packed wine of less than two litres slowed down its growth last year, and the import of wine in packaging of more than two litres has stayed at the same level for three successive years. After hefty rises of about 100% in the 2006-2007 period, China’s import of wine was 6,389,439 cases of packages of less than two litres (nine litres per case), rising 36% year on year.
The increase of raw materials for wine production has weakened China’s dependence on import. With the expansion of planting areas for grapes, the raw materials for wine production have increased gradually. However, with increasing expansion of China’s wine market, there will be more and more foreign brands of wine entering the China market, indicating more fierce competition for China’s wine- making industry in the coming years. “
The results are out, the reviews have been written, and now its time to sample the 2009 wine harvest. At lease this is the case for producers in the Southern Hemisphere of the world.
As producers in North America and Europe watch their grapes ripen, vintners in Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand are preparing to sample their first bottles of 2009.
A healthy growing season is paramount in the process of ultimately producing a quality wine. This is of course why certain regions in the world excel in wine making. These regions are blessed with extremely conducive climates for growing grapes used in wine making. This is why regions like Mendoza, Argentina have historically been known to consistently produce high quality wines. Click here to read more about the region of Mendoza from Mir Global Marketing’s home page)
This article from the Winespectator.com provides links to the publications reports on how the 2009 grapes have turned out in Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Argentina: Heat spike hurts Argentine white wines, but reds weather the warmth
Chile: A warm and dry year leads to ripe wines and slightly higher yields South Africa: South Africa’s wine regions enjoy a cool, dry season, producing quality across the board Australia: Yields are down in most regions, but a cool, dry season may have produced elegant reds New Zealand: A moderate growing season bodes well for the country’s reds and whites
To access complete country harvest and grape reports from the Winespectator.com, please click on each respective country link
Welcome to Mir Global Marketing’s blog, Globowines!
~~ Click here ~~ to visit our company website. Our current catalog includes new wines are from Argentina and Chile, which have have been especially chosen for the China and Singapore market
and excitement in consumers in China have been our Friends Canned Wine. The great value and quality of Chilean wine combined with some good branding design and marketing have helped get our company attention.
