This Day, That Year

Editor’s Note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy.

Since Dynasty Wine Ltd, the second joint venture between China and France, was established in Tianjin in 1980, the country has become one of the world’s major wine consumers.

Last year, Chinese drinkers quaffed more than 1.7 billion liters of wine, according to statistics from the Inter- national Organization of Vine and Wine. About 746 million liters were imported.

To meet surging demand, China has passed France, the world’s foremost producer and exporter of wine, in total acreage with 847,000 hectares of vineyards in 2016.

The country was the top destination for Bordeaux at 84 million bottles last year.

Spurred on by a growing thirst for wine among an expanding middle class in China, Chinese investors have snapped up more than 100 vineyards in France, with the majority in the Bordeaux area.

While top global wine- makers are tapping the

Chinese market, domestic companies are stepping up their overseas moves.

China’s biggest producer, Changyu Wine Group, last year announced plans to distribute its products in major supermarkets in about 15 European countries.

In January last year, one of its brands, Noble Dragon, was launched in the United Kingdom by the supermarket chain Sainsburys. Noble Dragon is made from Cabernet Gernischt grapes.

Analysts say the country is expected to overtake the United States as the world’s third-largest wine importer by 2020 after Germany and the United Kingdom.

MARCH 30-31