China presents a ‘long, slow opportunity’ for Australian wine

China has slowed down its demand for fine Australian wine but there is still plenty of opportunity for growth, says Darren Rathbone, CEO of the Rathbone Group.

Speaking to the drinks business at a tasting lunch earlier this week, Rathbone commented that there is still a lot of demand for “bragging labels” but China has calmed down its thirst for Australian fine wine. China remains the fastest growing export market, according to Wine Australia and Rathbone attributes this to the growing mass market.

“The interest is still definitely there among the more ‘everyday drinkers’”, he said. “There was this expectation for a few years that China was going to bite, then lo and behold, there was a boom. Now it’s settled down and we’ve got a solid base on which to build our brands on.”

Rathbone who looks after premium wineries, Yering Station, Mount Langi Ghiran and Xanadu in Margaret River mentions the recent upsurge in interest for wine primarily from those who have been educated overseas and developed a taste in Western-style drinking and pairing wine with food.

“There’s still a definite persuasion towards red wine. And good red wine at that! Drinkers in the first tier cities want the integrity and history associated with fine Australian wine and are becoming so much more engaged in finding out more about the wine as opposed to picking up one with a bragging label,” he said.

Rathbone also commented on the issue of Chinese drinkers not being able to understand wine tasting notes when they refer to unfamiliar tastes – a problem that the Australian Grape and Wine Authority (AGWA) has tried to tackle with a new bilingual tasting tool which presents a wine using well-known Chinese fruits and flowers, for example.

“Chinese food is so complex in taste, texture, aroma – everything – and we need to see the wine that we pair on their terms. Eating is an integral part of the culture but it’s no use describing a delicious wine if the drinkers won’t understand how it will taste.

“There is an anecdote I overhead which I hope is true. It’s when Jeremy Oliver, a well-known Australian wine critic was presenting a wine to a huge audience in China a few years ago. He mentioned that it tasted of ‘blackberry,’ and everyone was nodding along until someone bravely asked, ‘How can a wine taste like a phone?!’”

More seriously, Rathbone is confident on the continued success of Australian wine in China, especially with expansion into the second and third tier cities and the decrease of China’s famed drinking habit, ‘ganbei.’

“This notion of ‘gambei’ is not seen so much now. We’re seeing such a massive push for our wines outside of Shanghai and Beijing and people are taking them very seriously and not just necking them for the sake of it.”