Tesco adds Chinese wine to its shelves

Tesco has added a Chinese Cabernet Sauvignon to its portfolio from Changyu’s Chateau Moser XV, as it hails China as a potentially “powerful” wine player.

Tesco adds Chinese wine to its line-up

The Changu Moser XV Cabernet Sauvignon 2015, which has gone on shelf at the introductory offer of £7, is described by the retailer as an “impressive“ wine whose profile is a “cross between a classic Bordeaux and a rich fruity Australian wine”.

Tesco’s ‎Wine Category Buying Manager James Davis MW said the country, which the OIV confirmed had become the second largest producers of wine in 2016, after Spain, will soon be “a powerful player in the wine world”.

“China is one of the world’s biggest consumers of wine, drinking almost two billion bottles of red wine each year. And now they are one of the largest wine producing countries in the world, ahead of the more traditional regions of Chile and New Zealand,” he said.

The Chateau Changyu Moser XV Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 comes from the Helen Mountains in Ningxia (Yinchuan province), which is the largest wine-producing region in China, producing around 40% of China’s wine. It has a warm, dry climate and soils that have been alikened to Mendoza in Argentina. The Chateau was developed by Chinese wine producer Changyu Pioneer Wine Group, the biggest wine group in China, with the help of renowned Austrian winemaker Lenz Moser. It is managed separately by winemakers Fan Xi along with Moser, who has worked in China since 2006.

Davis said the move offered customers “an opportunity to discover a unique, but quality wine at an affordable price”, noting that it was “very food friendly” as well as offering a good talking point.

Tesco added that 2015 was a “great year” for Ningxia.

Chinese-made wine is also available in Sainsbury’s, after the retailer added two to its line-up in January – The Changyu Noble Dragon Red, a blend of Cabernet Gernischt and Cabernet Sauvignon (RRP: £10), and the Changyu Noble Dragon Riesling (RRP: 9.00), from the Yantai region in the coastal Shandong Peninsular to the east of the country.

Berry Bros & Rudd currently has the largest selection of wines from Changyu on the UK market, including four wines from Chateau Changyu Moser XV, including from the 2008 and 2013 vintages, as well as a selection of Chinese ice wines.

China’s area under vine is now the second largest in the world, with the country also seeing the biggest growth in wine consumption, according to the OIV’s latest annual report on the state of the global wine industry. China was the only country to have significantly increased its vineyard production area in 2016, after its vineyard surface area increased by 17k hectares to 847,000 hectares.