Fortified wines make up a small piece of the Chinese wine market pie, but that portion is poised to grow further as sherry categories such as ASC Fine Wines receive more attention.
According to Statista, China’s fortified wine market is expected to generate revenue of £10.3 million (CNY 93.6 million) in 2024, compared to revenue for the wine category as a whole of £8.1 billion.
Therefore, fortified wine plays a very small role in wine sales in this country. Even smaller is sherry, a fortified wine made in Spain’s Jerez region.
“The Chinese wine market mainly favors still wine,” said Matthew Gong, director of general affairs and corporate affairs at ASC Fine Wine. “Sherry is a fortified wine, so it is not widely recognized among most wine consumers. Sherry is only introduced and sold in China by a select few, such as ASC and specialized sherry importers. Only the top wine importers in .
The Chinese importer and distributor recently partnered with Club Cannon to educate consumers about Sherry through a Lustau Sherry and Photography Workshop in Shanghai on December 16th. Announced a partnership with photography company Canon.
ASC Fine Wines, which is committed to introducing sherry and its culture to Chinese consumers, organized this workshop as part of its active strategy to promote sherry. “This category takes time to build awareness and awareness among Chinese consumers,” Gong explained, and the workshop provides ASC with a path to do so.
Approximately 40 Club Canon members attended this immersive workshop, exploring the history of sherry, its unique characteristics, and the dynamic solera aging system.
ASC also conducts regular sherry training for employees as part of the company’s commitment to promoting the category. It’s not free.
“We see great potential for the growth of sherry in China,” Gong says, but to do so, “we need to promote sherry as a high-quality wine category and a great choice for cocktails.” It also recognizes that active efforts are needed by both sherry producers and importers.
The workshop collaboration with Canon aims to promote sherry by integrating Spanish culture, tourism and sherry tasting for Canon Club members who “understand the finer aspects of life”. he says. ASC has seen positive results so far, with its sherry business experiencing “significant development” over the past few years, even during Covid-19.
all ingredients
Sherry has all the ingredients for great success in the Chinese market, so to speak. The fortified wines offer a wide range of flavors, from the ultra-sweet His PX Sherry to the ultra-dry Fino Sherry. Biologically aged fino, oxidatively aged oloroso and semi-oxidatively aged amontillado palo His cortado also offers a variety of flavors in terms of oxidative properties.
In particular, the more oxidative style should resonate with consumers in eastern China. Gong compares these sherry to yellow rice wine, saying, “They are similarly oxidative wines, with styles ranging from very sweet to very dry.”
Cocktails could be the key to breaking into the Chinese market to get Millennial and Gen Z consumers on board the sherry train and “drive the future of sherry consumption.”