By Vivian Ni

Nov. 21 – The surging demand for wine in China has made the country one of the most important target markets for global wine producers, as regular Chinese consumers are now becoming more receptive to Western wine, and wealthy Chinese buyers are considering red wine as a new type of speculative investment to counter inflation.

Promising wine consumption market
While traditional wine consumption markets in the West are all declining amid the recent global economic woes, wine sales in China have been experiencing an impressive 15 percent annual increase over the past several years, according to estimates made by U.S.-based consulting firm A.T. Kearney (ATK). Furthermore, a report issued in September by U.K.-based International Wine and Spirit Research (IWSR) says that wine consumption reached 125 million 12-bottle cases in 2010 and is forecast to double to 250 million cases by 2016. Continue reading →