China’s New Obsession: French Wine

(NYTimes) - WHEN the Bordeaux International Wine Institute, which offers business management training in the oenological arts, opened its doors in 2004, it had 20 students, mostly from domestic French wineries. Today it has 105.

What is most striking about this year’s class isn’t its size, but its composition. Though students come from places as diverse as India and Turkey, one group of foreigners stands out: Chinese students make up almost 30 percent, the largest group by nationality behind the French. Their American classmates comprise less than 4 percent.

Meanwhile, the Burgundy Business School in Dijon has also recorded a rise in Chinese students in its wine management programs. Between 2009 and 2012, Chinese students made up barely 10 percent of the graduate ranks; now, 33 of this year’s 100 students hail from China.

Wine has always been an essential part of the French tradition, both culturally and economically, but the world’s growing middle class has made it a global one: worldwide wine consumption is expected to grow almost 9 percent, to $182 billion, by 2016, with a large chunk of the demand coming from China.

Some in France, however, view this development with unease, which has at times exploded into violent xenophobia. In August a group of Frenchmen assaulted a group of Chinese oenology students at a wine school in nearby Sauternes, sending several to the hospital.

Along with a general fear of change within the centuries-old wine world, there is concern that China, with its huge population and geography, could someday eclipse France’s place in wine production. Some even fear that these students could mark the first stage of a Chinese takeover of the French wine industry, buying up vineyards in the same way the country bought up huge tracts of Africa.