Australian wines overflow at Chinese tables

SYDNEY, Nov. 25 (Xinhua)-- As demand for high-quality wine in China continues to rise, the future is looking bright for Australian exports, a third-generation winemaker has said recently.

Over the past four years, China's enthusiasm for Australian wine has flourished. Between 2007 and 2010, total sales to China increased by 34.7 million litres, or 260 percent, according to Wine Australia. And while growth slowed over 2010-11, Australia is still the second-ranked exporter to China after France. "The market has been building quite steadily. There's a genuine interest in matching quality wine with very good Chinese food," Mitchell Taylor, managing director of South Australian winery Taylors Wines and director of the Winemakers Federation of Australia told Xinhua.

Taylors is one of 12 wineries to join a group called Australia' s First Families of Wine that will head to China later this year in a joint campaign to wine and dine Chinese consumers. "The Australian wine industry's very proud that we are the second-biggest export into the Chinese wine market at the moment, closely behind France,"said Taylor."But we believe when people start to look at the lovely fruit profiles that are in Australian wines, there's potential to maybe even overtake France in the future."

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