Italian wine in China

After looking at one of the exhibits for our Wine in China case, I was interested in finding out why Italy was such a low proportion of the wine imports into China. We all understand that France has the highest brand recognition, but why had Chile, Spain, and Australia all surpassed Italy?

According to experts, the opportunity for Italian wine in China is big, but "Italian wines haven't established a unified identity in the Chinese market," says Liu Qiang, the managing director of Italian wine importer SinoDrink. There's a need to educate the consumer on the market. Li Meiyu, the director of Park Hyatt Beijing, says, "There aren’t that many consumers who would intentionally order Italian wines from us though; most of them are Italian."

To grow Italian wine's share of the China market, a few things need to happen:

• A prestigious wine brand name needs to become recognizable to the high-end Chinese consumer. The Italian counterpart to Lafite, if you will.
• Alignment of Italian wine with other Italian brands, promote the Italian lifestyle. Liu Qiang ways, "Most Chinese consumers have a good impression of the Italian lifestyle, and many are keen about luxury products from Italy." Italian brands Armani, Prada, Dolce & Gabbana are enormously popular in China already.
• Education on Italian wine varietals: Chinese consumers aren't familiar with the Italian language and specific varietals, while they have become very familiar with Bordeaux and Bourgogne.
• Get big influencers to promote Italian wine. It was a major win for the Italian wine industry that Jack Ma of Alibaba attended Vinitaly, a wine exhibition promoting Italy. Having other high-profile people at high-profile events drinking Chianti and Barolo.

Our discussion yesterday yielded many great ideas for how Napa wine could be promoted in China. What, if anything, would you add if you were tasked with promoting Italian wine?