Are Asiatic women also part of the future of wine?

Dedicato a chi pensa di esportare vino in Estremo Oriente...

Ecco alcuni risultati di una ricerca commissionata da Vinexpo, in occasione del prossimo Vinexpo Asia - Pacific, in programma a Hong Kong dal 25 al 27 maggio prossimi.

All over the world, women are becoming more and more involved with wine.
The wine industry is employing more women and female consumers are developing an increasing interest in wine, but what is happening exactly in Asia?
What are Asian women's habits, attitudes or expectations with regard to wine?
Vinexpo put a series of questions to women in four Asian countries in order to identify what they had in common and what differences there were depending on whether they lived in China Japan, Hong Kong or South Korea.*

1) Asian women constitute a new growing market
In Japan, the most mature market in Asia, 42% of the women interviewed drink wine more than twice a week. In the three other survey countries, the number of women who drink wine is becoming significant, thus creating a new market whose characteristics can be explored.

Consumption without inhibition

Asian women talk about drinking wine quite openly. More than 70% of them say that they drink wine for enjoyment. For 76% of the Korean women interviewed, wine contributes to a friendly atmosphere.
More than one Chinese woman out of two say that they choose their wine themselves, and notably 86% of all Asian women claim that drinking wine is compatible with maintaining a balanced diet.

2) Asian women have clear criteria for choosing their wines

They choose a wine for its taste, but also as a match for a dish.
While 92% of the Japanese respondents and 74% of the Koreans interviewed choose wine for its taste, 38% of the Chinese women questioned said that they drink wine, because it is good for health (while only 22% claimed to drink wine for its taste). This finding is key for wine professionals to understand this market and the press can be expected to play a vital role.

Red wine, please

More than two Asian women out of three prefer red wine.
This clear preference is displayed by 84% of Chinese women, while those in Hong Kong experiment more and the majority (62%) of the more knowledgeable about wine drink red. However, one third of the wines they drink are also white, rosé and sparkling wines.

It can be observed that this trend is the reverse of what happened a few decades ago, when wine consumption took off in northern Europe and the United States, starting first with white wine.

Country of origin and price are the basic drivers of choice

For 77% of the Japanese women interviewed, price was the most important factor motivating their choice of wine. In Japan, of course, the amount of duty on wine is very high, but the wine's country of origin is overall the primary driver of choice, especially in China and Hong Kong.

3) Wine is a product of elegance

More than half the Asian women interviewed described wine as being "elegant".
72% of Chinese female drinkers said wine was "elegant" or "the reflection of a style of living".
Only the Japanese women (34%) reported wine to be a "traditional" product, while 38% of women in Hong Kong described it as "modern".

*The survey was conducted with female wine consumers in four countries in partnership with Trendshealth (China) and Elle (Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan).

The findings concern nine questions that were all asked in the four countries and are based on the answers of 2,810 women, who were all above the age of 18. The questionnaire was applied between 11 February and 9 March 2010. 48% of all the women who answered our questions were less than 30 years old.