Move over France, China expected to be world's biggest wine producer within five years

Move over France, China expected to be world's biggest wine producer within five years

Despite being ridiculed by the West for its cheap wines and crude wine palate, China may have the last laugh as it's predicted to become the world's biggest wine producer within five years, according to an anthropologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research:
This means China will have to double the amount of land it has under vine within the next coming years, if these predictions are to come true. Figures taken from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) place Spain at one million hectares (2012) and France at 800,000 hectares. However, China’s vineyards have increased by 90 per cent since 2011, putting their 2012 figures at 570,000 hectares, although a large proportion of these vines are dedicated to table grapes.

Pretty surreal, especially since China's simultaneously losing interest in the native baijiu and the West is starting to consume and even produce it. It's like the beverage version of Trading Places

Origin information:Shanghaiist.com