China's appetite for Western-style wines has boomed in the past two decades, though the favorite still is red, a color associated with health and good luck.
Sparkling wine consumption more than tripled from 3.7 million bottles in 2009 to more than 13 million last year, according to International Wine and Spirit Research, a British firm. During the same period, total wine consumption rose from 5 billion to 8.8 billion bottles.
Sparkling wine also might get a boost from an 18-month-old campaign by the ruling Communist Party to press officials to rein in lavish spending on entertaining.
The campaign has hurt sales of high-end spirits and has focused the attention of more sophisticated young urban drinkers on alternatives such as wine.
China is now the world's fifth-biggest producer of wine, as well its fifth-biggest consumer.
(via Yahoo)
