Asian wines nothing to sniff at nowadays (Feature)

By dpa correspondents Jun 7, 2010, 4:07 GMT

Bangkok - Wine has been a late bloomer in Asia, lagging behind more affordable means of imbibing such as beer and spirits, but with economic booms, rising prosperity and changing lifestyles, Asian wines are beginning to make a splash.

Japan's winemakers have been at it longer than most. The first winemakers were sent to study viticulture in France shortly after the 1868 Meiji Restoration, but vineyards only took root there after World War II.

Using their own Koshu variety grapes, Japanese wines have been winning international awards and good reviews from critics of late.

'Overall, Japanese wines are the most consistent across the board, red and white, partly because they have been making serious quality wines for several decades, much longer than China and other Asian countries,' said Jeannie Cho Lee, author of Asian Palate: Savoury Asian Cuisine and Wines and creator of the asianpalate.com website.

One drawback for Japanese wines is their expense, which means that while they might impress a few connoisseurs, especially Japanese, they will not make a real ripple on the world market for affordable plonk.

To compete with the world's major wine exporters such as Australia, Chile, France and South Africa, one needs mass production and a reasonable price tag.

While no Asian country has reached that stage yet, one shouldn't write off the continent just yet.

'China is really the country to look out for; in 10 years time, it's going to be amazing to see,' Hong Kong-based Lee said. 'It is definitely going to happen, but the first waves of exports are not going to be very high end.'

China, per usual, has its sheer size going for it.

China is the world's number eight wine consumer with sales expected to reach 1.1 billion bottles next year. (With a population of 1.3 billion, that's still less than a bottle per person.)

In terms of production with 600 wineries in 2009, China ranks 10th worldwide.

Three state-run giants - Great Wall, Dynasty and Changyu - dominate about 80 per cent of the local market. Dynasty recently carried out an initial public offering in Hong Kong, hoping to raise funds to finance its move into exports.

Meanwhile, several famed French wineries are looking for joint venture partners in China to tap the domestic market.

India, another huge market, has further to go. The government's recent efforts to promote local wineries - there are about 55 - has led to a glut of poor quality vintages on the local market that have left the industry with a hangover it might take years to recover from.

Elsewhere in Asia, unsuitable grape-growing conditions and high taxes have put a crimp on domestic vineyards and wineries.

Vineyard productivity depends chiefly on sunlight, so counties 13 degrees north or south of the equator are deemed unsuitable for grape growing because they are limited to a maximum of 12 hours of light.

Such a location hasn't stopped countries such as Thailand from producing some palatable wines that are selling well domestically.

Thailand's six main wineries are following a similar business model of turning their vineyards into tourist attractions and banking on on-site sales or local distribution to hotels and restaurants.

The vineyard-tourist model has been picked up elsewhere in South-East Asia.

The 3-hectare vineyard of Cambodia's Phnom Banan winery in Battambang province has given up on local retail sales and is depending on a steady stream of tourist dollars instead.

In Vietnam, where the French colonialists tried and failed to kick off a local wine industry in the 19th century, a French investor is giving it another go. Daniel Carsol's family winery De La Cote SCEA in Valreas, France, established a joint venture with Dalat Beverage Co in 2006. Their 16-hectare vineyard on Ta Nung Mountain north of Dalat plans to launch Vietnam's first 'French' wine in September.

Even military-ruled Myanmar boasts a domestic wine brand. Aythaya Vineyards, the brainchild of German investor Bert Morsbach, was set up 10 years ago near Inle Lake. The vineyard claims to produce about 100,000 bottles of Sauvignon Blanc.

'If Myanmar did not have its problems and was not so isolated, I would say it should become one of the leading Asian countries in the wine business because it has a good climate to grow grapes in the north and has only moderate monsoon rains,' said Kathrin Puff, head winemaker at Thailand's Siam Winery.