China has been one of the most important sources of growth in global wine demand this century, accounting by 2017 for 7% of the world’s wine consumption and imports. But since then China’s per capita wine consumption has fallen every year and in 2022 was one-third of its 2017 peak, and its imports have more than halved. Certainly the COVID-19 disruption and associated slowdown in China’s income growth would account for some of that, but the fall in China’s alcohol consumption between 2019 and 2022 was considerably larger for wine (49%) than for spirits (14%) and beer (3%). Thus wine’s share of alcohol consumption in China fell by two-fifth over those three years. The article speculates on reasons behind the dramatic downturn, and finishes by drawing implications for wine-exporting countries.

Keywords: Chinese alcohol consumption, wine imports by China, wine production in China