With China’s evolving shopper panorama, wine is now not restricted to “formal banquets {and professional} tasting occasions”, the expo discovered, and consequently is changing into extra accessible.
On the expo, positioned in Yinchuan, the capital of northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Area, canned wines from the Ningxia State Farm Vineyard have seen reputation, with the corporate additionally providing merchandise reminiscent of creamy jasmine wine, lemon oolong tea wine, black espresso wine and alcohol-free choices. These merchandise drove 20% of the corporate’s gross sales development in 2024, mentioned Li Shuang, the vineyard’s gross sales supervisor.
Ningxia is China’s largest wine-producing area, with extended sunshine hours and a cool, dry local weather aiding the cultivation of grapes, and its jap foot of Helan Mountain thought to be a “golden zone” for grape cultivation and high-end wine manufacturing.
By the top of 2024, the area had greater than 600,000 mu (about 40,000 hectares) of wine grape plantations and an annual wine output of 140 million bottles, with wines exported to over 40 nations and areas.
Final month, Yinchuan additionally hosted a marathon that noticed 43 native wineries provide 28,000 runners free winery excursions, tastings and unique reductions for wine purchases.
“We’re reworking all the metropolis right into a residing wine museum,” mentioned Li Bingjie, director of Yinchuan’s wine trade growth service middle. “Guests can totally immerse themselves within the journey from grape to glass.”
Talking on the expo’s opening ceremony, Yvette van der Merwe, president of the Worldwide Organisation of Vine and Wine, mentioned that the organisation has for a few years noticed and supported the rise of China’s grape and wine trade, with the nation being an vital wine shopper and desk grape producer.
“I see the vitality that the expansion of Ningxia Helan Mountain’s east foothill area has contributed to the Chinese language wine trade, and I’m assured that it’ll convey new inspiration and alternatives to the worldwide wine neighborhood,” van der Merwe added.
