Breaking China

(FT) - I don’t know about other wine lovers but I felt a small glow of pride when the Chinese government made wine its diplomatic weapon of choice in the trade war over the cheap solar panels it exports to the EU. Yes, the volumes of European wine imported into China really are now significant enough to be worth slapping an additional tax on!

The wine-in-China story is one with many different and often unrelated facets. There is the surge of imported wine into the country, the great volume of it pretty ordinary stuff, imported in bulk to be given labels which bear only the most creative relationship to any known brand in their place of origin. One of my favourites is Château Lateet, prominent when the reclame of Bordeaux first growth Château Lafite was at its height in China. “Bordeaux Port” on a label decorated with a fair copy of the engraving on a Lafite label was good too.

Solicitor Nick Bartman, who had been based in Hong Kong and was aghast at how slack controls were on wine labels in China, approached me three years ago seeking help to publicise the problem to wine exporters. He told me recently: “We’ve done one major job in Shandong and I reckon we’ve done €30+ million damage to the fake wine business. I’ve worked with the police and others. Wine companies have been closed and others are now under strict supervision. There’s more to do but it’s time for me to move on.”