404 Error File Not Found The page you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.PARIS China overtook France last year as the world's second largest wine grower by area under cultivation as it continued to plant vast fields of mostly imported grape vines to meet growing demand.The world's second largest economy, which since 2013 consumes more red wine than any other country, has more than doubled the land devoted to vines since the start of the century to 799,000 hectares, the International Vine and Wine organization OIV said on Monday. It now accounts for 10.6 percent of the world's wine area against 10.5 percent for France and 13.5 percent for world No.1 grower, Spain."China wants to be self-sufficient in all sectors, this one included," OIV Director General Jean-Marie Aurand told reporters.Vines are imported from all around the world and are mostly red grapes as Chinese virtually drink no white wine, he said.They include many varieties such as Cabernet-Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Chardonnay and are essentially grown in the Ningxia, Sichuan and Hebei provinces in dry areas where there is little competition with other crops, Aurand said.

Still, China's wine production is still far behind the world's major producers, France, Italy and Spain, which all surpassed 40 million hectolitres last year while China was barely at 11 million, ranking eighth in the world.But since vines take between four and five years to produce and planting surged about two to three years ago, China's output could jump in just a few years, Aurand said.At a global level, wine output fell 4 percent in 2014 to around 279 million hectolitres, OIV said. France ranked first by production at 46.7 million hectolitres thanks to good weather while Italy and Spain, which had less favorable conditions, fell back from large volumes the previous year.In terms of consumption, Chinese sales dipped 7 percent, hit by a government clampdown on extravagant spending, but Aurand noted that this followed rapid growth since 2000. The United States confirmed its place as the world No.1 wine consumer, a position it won from France in 2013.The U.S. market grew nearly 2 percent in volume last year to 30.7 million hectoliters, while it fell close to 3 percent in France to 27.9 million.

Overall, global consumption was down slightly at 240 million hectolitres last year, down from 242 million recorded the three previous years, OIV said.This provisional data would likely be revised lower to take account of Russia's embargo on Western food products and the crisis in Ukraine, Aurand said. (Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide; Editing by Andrew Callus)best wine for turkey 2016Total Equity Funding$ 7 Rounds 6 InvestorsMost Recent Funding$ Series G July 30, 2015Headquarters:Beijing, BeijingDescription:Beijing Winebibber E-commerce is focused on importing high-grade wine.best wines to drink with meatFounded:2009Aliases:Brewmaster network Network E-Commerce Co., Ltd.Employees:1 - 10 | best cooking wine brand

1 in CrunchbaseBeijing Winebibber E-commerce is a company focused on importing high-grade wine, red wine, medium and high grade domestic liquor, Shaoxing wine, and more. It specializes in the sales of high-grade wine with the help of the e-commerce platform. Beijing Winebibber E-commerce handles the first professional e-commerce business-to-consumer drink retail chain website in Chinabuy wine texas Completes $68.5M Series D And E Rounds - China Money Network - Tune in for China's Financial Markets and Investment Opportunities - Chinese wine estore cracks open box of wine presenta bottle of bubbly to celebrate... - Cheers! wine and food london 2015Wine E-Tailer Jiuxian Celebrates $32 Million Series C FundingHeadquartersNo. 58 by the sea on the 5th floor, Building 2, 8Daxing District, Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, East RoadBeijing, Beijing China

The domed caps of the creamy stone towers echo those at Valençay. The cherubbed fountains (faintly) evoke the Boboli Gardens in Florence. It’s also brand new and, considering it was finished in 2013, after just two years of construction and at a cost of €70 million, there’s only one place it could be – and that’s nowhere near the Loire or the monuments of renaissance Italy, but in China. “This is the beauty of China. If they do it, they do it big,” says Lenz Moser. Château Changyu-Moser XV bears his name. This is the sort of crazy thing that happens when you get involved with China’s oldest, biggest (and clearly very solvent) wine producer. “At first I didn’t take them seriously,” says the consultant, marketer and winemaker. “Then I saw this enormous construction site. I was slightly overwhelmed.” The XV represents the fact that the Austrian is the 15th generation of his family to be involved in winemaking. The Chinese are keen on that type of thing and feel that an international winemaker – Moser has worked for Mondavi in California as well as in his native Austria – gives credibility.

For Moser’s part, his original interest in China – population, 1.4 billion – was its potential as a market. The idea of being a pioneer who brought Chinese wine to the rest of the world soon proved a greater lure. He has competition here, however, most notably from LVMH, which has a facility in Ningxia and releases the first vintage of Ao Yun, its upmarket Chinese red wine, this week. Tasting, I feel Chinese wine has probably doubled in quality in two years – and the rate of improvement is accelerating...We can’t afford not to be in there Ao Yun is based on cabernet sauvignon and comes from austere territory, a few hours from the mythical Shangri-La, close to Tibet in the remote south-west of China. LVMH believes the best grapes can be grown here, benefiting from high-altitude, UV-rich light and a long growing season of up to 150 days. There are just 2,000 cases (24,000 bottles) of the inaugural 2013 vintage and LVMH says there is little capacity for vineyard expansion.

The ambition is not for volume but for a wine that confounds expectations. By contrast, Changyu claims to be one of the world’s biggest wine producers, with eight châteaux and 100 winemakers who make 150 million bottles a year. Ch Changyu-Moser, 2,000km away from Changyu HQ, is Moser’s domain and, he says “completely decentralised” in terms of operations and decision-making. It produces half a million bottles a year. Putting this in the context of China’s overall wine output is difficult. The International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) places China, after Spain, as the country with the second biggest vineyard area in the world, though many say this statistic includes vineyards for table as well as wine grapes. China is also the world’s fifth biggest wine consumer, but in 2014 80 per cent of wine drunk there was produced domestically. For cultural reasons, China is predominantly a red-wine consumer, though Moser is managing to import an impressive 120,000 bottles of white wine – gruner veltliner – a year.

Both LVMH and Moser are keen to make a red that has a distinctly Chinese taste, which has yet to be identified but might be 'spicy' And while LVMH bets on Yunnan for bordeaux-style red wines, Moser, like many others, has gambled on Ningxia, an inland region about 1,200km west of Beijing. After years of working for Changyu as a consultant he recently stepped up his involvement, spending a chunk of time in Ningxia for the harvest for the first time in 2015. He also has a new British importer, Conviviality plc, which owns Wine Rack as well as Bibendum. I tasted three of the cabernet sauvignon-based Changyu-Moser wines this week and was surprised by the drinkability of the Moser XV Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 which is expected to retail for about £10. The Moser Family Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 (around £25) had the most pure, cassis-like, cabernet scent. I still struggle to enjoy the top-of-the-range Ch Changyu Moser XV, which is like a car crash of Fronsac, California and tannat from Uruguay.

I think the question in everyone’s mind is: where is China heading and what will be most valuable? Volume, quality or both? Both LVMH and Moser are keen to make a red that has a distinctly Chinese taste, which has yet to be identified but might be “spicy”. Andrew Shaw, group wine buying director at Conviviality, signed up Changyu-Moser when he travelled to China in spring and says he intends to buy wines from other estates, too. He puts the conundrum in a nutshell. “Tasting, I feel Chinese wine has probably doubled in quality in two years – and the rate of improvement is accelerating. There’s a huge potential blind spot on the winemaking planet that either has arrived or is going to arrive, and whoever gets in first will be able to own it. We can’t afford not to be in there.” Wines of the week The Co-op Cava Rosado Brut NV Spain (12%, Co-op, £5.99) Prosecco is now so popular, and thus so expensive for what it is, that at the cheap end cava often does the job better.