Mainland China's wine market is in the midst of a reset – moving away from formal dinners to more casual and intentional occasions. Wine Australia’s China Market Insight Report, released today for Australian wine and grape levy payers, pulls together insights from a variety of sources to give an overall snapshot of the market and key consumer trends, as well as vital resources for Australian wine exporters.
An important global exporter – and importer of wines
Mainland China is the largest economy in the Asia Pacific region and second largest globally (based on nominal GDP) – worth US$19.4 trillion in 2025 (IMF). This represents roughly 20 per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP), when you adjust for purchasing power parity, a share which has been rising steadily over the past few decades.
Although mainland China met growth expectations in 2025 (GDP grew by 5 per cent), economic growth is forecast to slow down. Mainland China's economy is heavily dependent on other nations' spending due to its dominance in manufacturing consumer goods for the world. Therefore, economic performance can be impacted by consumers in destination markets watching their spending or by global trade disputes. Likewise, it is influenced by Chinese consumers’ spending habits – which are subdued. In 2025, consumers saved 32 per cent of their income as concerns about the property market and employment made them cautious.
Figure 1: Consumer Confidence Index in mainland China (100=neutral)
Despite recent decline, the mainland China wine market is incredibly important in the Asia Pacific region. According to IWSR, it is second largest in total volume behind the Australian market and is also the second largest imported wine market – behind Japan. However, wine sells at a higher average value in mainland China than these two larger markets and is especially important for premium Australian wine.
Wine market is resetting
Changing consumer habits and consumption occasions are shifting the alcohol market in mainland China. Since consumers are wary of spending money, a lot more alcohol is being consumed at home rather than in restaurants and bars. This has resulted in certain styles declining – for example sparkling wine and Scotch – both popular in bars and clubs. With the number of business dinners also declining, consumers are moving towards lighter styles – white wines and white spirits – that suit more informal occasions1.
The wine market in mainland China is facing a major re-structure due to a number of factors including the disruption to consumer habits during the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent pessimistic consumer sentiment, the decline in popularity in high-volume domestic wines, and the shift away from luxury gifting and business dinners. The ban on alcohol at government events, announced May 2025, is also having a large impact.
Figure 2: Wine consumption in mainland China
Source: IWSR
While mainland China has traditionally been a red wine market, it is shifting towards lighter wine styles. Women in particular drove the move towards white wine, preferring it for pairing with spicy food. This drove increased popularity in German Rieslings and New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc during 2024. Champagne is suffering as the trade in the on-premise remains difficult. However, more affordable options such as Prosecco, Cava, and other sparkling wines (including Australian) grew as casual occasions and light aperitifs increased in popularity through 2024 and into the first half of 20252.
Australia takes share from other source countries upon return
Wine imports into mainland China were on a downward trend as consumption declined, until 2024, where the return of Australian wines after the removal of import tariffs gave a boost to the overall level of imports. When the Australian category returned, other sources such as France, Chile, and Italy lost share. 2025 saw a return to the downward trend (though from a higher base) with France, Chile, and notably the United States, losing the most volume during the year.
Figure 3: Value of mainland China wine imports by source country
Source: Trade Data Monitor
The last decade has been a turbulent time for Australian wine exports to mainland China, with the imposition of import tariffs in 2020 and then removal in 2024. Shipment levels were greatly elevated as the market opened to the Australian category once again. However, this level of exports was not expected to continue given the change in the Chinese market over the last several years.
Figure 4: Exports of Australian wine to mainland China with import duty timeline
Source: Wine Australia
As consumer occasions have shifted towards lighter styles – Australian wine exporters have responded. The share of still red wine fell to 84 per cent in 2025, with still white wine exports increasing from a 4 per cent share to a 14 per cent share over the same period.
Further detail and analysis can be found in the full report.
Please note: the China Market Insights Report is only accessible to Australian wine levy-payers and exporters. Make sure you are logged in to your levy-payer-access website account. For more information contact the Market Insights team at market.insights@wineaustralia.com.