Among those who do, Chinese customers almost always prefer an imported bottle, according to Mariano Larrain Hurtado, a wine consultant who owns a shop in Beijing, while foreigners are more interested China SELF-CLINCHING NUTS Suppliers in sampling Chinese wines."Ningxia wines cost only several hundred yuan, it’s not a luxury gift, it’s for ordinary people to enjoy. Bringing them into line may prove difficult in Ningxia, where the vines must be buried every winter to protect them from the cold, a labour-intensive process that drives up costs."Liquor giants Pernod-Ricard and Moet-Hennessey both own wineries in the region. Ningxia wines have fared well in some blind tastings: When Bordeaux faced China in a 2011 competition in Beijing the top bottle came from Ningxia."For the wineries in Ningxia, in their mind, making wine is more or less the same as making cars: grapes go in, wine comes out," he said. AFP worker.Developing its "own style will be important as the region is very different to Bordeaux or any other wine region in the world", said Carsten Migliarina, a South African who worked in France and now makes his own eponymous brand in Stellenbosch.A sweeping corruption crackdown since Chinese President Xi Jinping came to power more than two years ago has seen demand slip for luxury goods — including premium foreign wines — as it cast a chill over the widespread gifting of expensive alcohol and other items to officials.But the format had a flaw: The contest was limited to bottles priced between 200 and 400 yuan ($30-$60) in China, putting the French products at a disadvantage because of Beijing’s punishing 48 percent import duty.1 billion litres of wine last year, according to the OIV — in eighth place globally, well behind France’s 4.jpg A Chinese worker (left) collects grapes while members of a group of 50 foreign winemakers (right), brought to Ningxia by a government-sponsored competition, taste wine at a winery in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region.But while China produced 1. Instead they needed to showcase their own terroir, he said.When Mr Hernandez, a Chilean walked into a winery in Ningxia he found an unappetising blend: brand new Chinese equipment and old French ideas about winemaking."The problem with Chinese wine is not the taste, it’s the price, for the moment the prices don’t match the quality," he said.China has the world’s second-largest grape growing area, but experts say its winemakers need to innovate rather than imitate established European or New World regions if they are ever to join their ranks.But vineyards have only become serious in the past 15 years.A Chinese worker (left) collects grapes while members of a group of 50 foreign winemakers (right), brought to Ningxia by a government-sponsored competition, taste wine at a winery in Yinchuan, Ningxia Hui autonomous region.But it hosts some impressive wineries, owned by members of China’s Han majority, complete with the latest technology, imported oak barrels and slick tasting rooms. "They need to offer something unique from that place."Those bottles that cost tens of thousands yuan have been seriously impacted by the anti-corruption rules," said Cao Kailiang, deputy director of the forestry bureau, which oversees the vineyards."- Number Two -China’s first commercial winery opened in 1892, and the country’s 799,000 hectares (1. Government officials in Ningxia predict that it could spur sales of domestic brands as an alternative. Ningxia has only a limited history of viniculture, and most of the vineyard workers have never tasted their produce: the region is the homeland of China’s Hui Muslim minority, who adhere to the Islamic prohibition on alcohol."The wines have potential, you see they have something special, but right now most wineries are just copying Bordeaux styles, it’s the same mistake all the South American countries made 20 to 30 years ago," said Mr Hernandez, who has made wine in Argentina and Spain as well as his home country. But good, albeit not spectacular, fruit is not enough to make a great wine.Currently most Ningxia vines are cabernet, and wineries are trying to make high-alcohol, heavily-oaked products.4 billion litres — most Chinese do not drink it, instead preferring beer or baijiu, a fiery white spirit that can be up to 72 percent alcohol.But the foreign winemakers in the competition overwhelmingly singled out marselan grapes — a cross between cabernet sauvignon and grenache that produces fresher, fruitier wine — as better suited to the area. "Great Chinese wines are still five to 10 years away."Walking among sun-kissed vines, most of the winemakers were initially impressed by the grapes." end-of.97 million acres) devoted to wine grapes are second only to Spain, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV).The biggest problem, Mr Hernandez said, was an idea that money and investment can make great wine. AFPIn a country renowned for forgery, winemaker Jose Hernandez worries China’s burgeoning viniculture industry will suffer from blatant copying of Bordeaux’s output."Selecting the right grape varieties will take time. Mr Hernandez was among more than 50 foreign winemakers brought to the northern region by a government-sponsored competition that pairs each with a local winery, in an attempt to drive up quality and earn a global reputation