Champagne Brands Eye China

Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, Taittinger and other champagne houses could spearhead a move into China, in an indication of changing tastes.

Robert Beynat, chief executive of Vinexpo, was speaking to the Wall Street Journal following the publication of a new study.

99.5% of wine currently consumed in still wine. “The Chinese ignore the sparkling wines right now,” Beynat said.

He attributed this to a shortage of marketing by the champagne industry, and said leading brands would play an important future role in educating Chinese consumers about sparkling wines.

The overall growth in wine consumption in China is expected to slow to 39.6% over the next four years, compared with the 142% increase seen between 2007 and 2011.

Vinexpo expects 252m cases of wine to be consumed annually in China by 2016, up from 159m in 2011.

Beynat said the slowdown was a natural correction after the explosion in demand witnessed in China in recent years.

Nonetheless, he anticipated that the country would remain a growth story, as he pointed out China is expected to become the world’s sixth largest wine producer in 2016, ahead of Chile and Australia. “The more you produce, the more you drink,” he noted.

French wines still rule the Chinese market, accounting for around 48% of imports in terms of volume.

China’s per capita consumption is predicted to increase from 1.4 litres of wine per person to 2.1 litres over the next three years. This remains far behind France, the top nation on this metric, at 53.2 litres per person.

Source: AFP/Wall Street Journal

The Association “Femmes de Vin” at Vinexpo

For the second year the “Femmes de Vin” Association was present at Vinexpo showcasing their wines.

The Circle of “Femmes de Vin” was created in 2009 by two passionate wine producers: Chantal Pégaz from Beaujolais and Marie-Laurence Saladin from Côtes du Rhône.

The Circle of “Femmes de Vin” brings together regional associations of female wine producers, who have common passions for defending, on a daily basis, the land, countryside, environment, wine production and the flavours of the French appellations. The regional associations consist of:

• Les Aliénor du Vin de Bordeaux www.bordeaux-lesalienor.fr
• Les DiVINes d’Alsace www.divinesdalsace.com
• Les Eléonores de Provence,www.leseleonoresdeprovence.blog4ever.com
• Les Etoiles en Beaujolais, www.etoiles-enbeaujolais.com
• Les Femmes et Vins de Bourgogne, www.fevb.net
• Femmes Vignes Rhône, www.femmesvignesrhone.com
• Les Vinifilles en Languedoc-Roussillon, www.vinifilles.fr

“Divided, but not against”, the men, fathers, brothers, husbands, friends… they won’t be far away! Each of these women, who are content and blossoming in their work, has a story and a clear career path. “Girls of”, “women of” or “business women from elsewhere” are all “creators of wine” fulfilling their dreams!