California winemakers court Chinese buyers
California winemakers court Chinese buyers
Jul 4, 2012 6
(LATimes) - With bottles ready for tasting, a group of Lodi wine producers waited anxiously recently for a delegation of monied businesspeople they hoped to impress. The vintners burst into applause when the group finally arrived, more than an hour late.
The guests weren't Hollywood moguls or Silicon Valley venture capitalists. They were potential customers and investors from the city of Shenyang in northern China, coming to check out Lodi as a potential source of affordable wine to supply China's rapidly growing market.
The rising middle class in China and other Asian-Pacific countries is one of the wine world's fastest-growing markets. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, China is expected to add 235 million consumers by 2020 and will account for 20% of the global luxury market by 2015.
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