Can China become the wine world’s next California?

Teng Bo operates a boutique hotel in Hangzhou for mainland Chinese travellers. A fan of California red wine, he makes sure the wine cellar is stocked with top-quality cabernet sauvignon and pinot noir from Napa and Sonoma.

“California wine has a richness that really suits Chinese drinkers’ palates,” he said.

Teng prefers the boldness of California wines over their staid French counterparts. “It tastes mature for a new world wine,” he said. “Winemakers there know how to bring out the biggest natural flavours in the grapes.”

Californian wine accounts for a small percentage of China’s US$16.5 billion wine market. But demand for the product is so high among China’s increasingly discerning drinkers that it took a nearly 80 per cent tariff during the United States-China trade war to stem its flow in the later months of 2018.

After initial 15 per cent tariffs were levied in April 2018, Chinese consumption of California wine actually went up, before finally taking a dive after September’s additional duties. A bottle of California cabernet sauvignon, which originally retailed in China for around ¥275 (US$40), now goes for nearly twice that price.

But 40 years ago, California was struggling for recognition as one of the world’s great winemaking regions. It took decades of winning blind taste tests and awards for it to finally achieve the global recognition it enjoys today.