The New Zealand wine industry has an eye on the Tiger.

Two weeks ago more than a thousand bottles of wine from 20 Kiwi wineries were taken to China for the first ever New Zealand wine fair in Beijing.

The event, attended by more than 200 trade and media representatives was followed by an even bigger fair in Shanghai, with bottles from 26 New Zealand wineries offered for tasting.

New Zealand Winegrowers Global Marketing Director, Chris Yorke, said the events have been a complete success

“We took 20 wineries to Beijing and 25 to Shanghai and it was amazing the response we got in both cities. We certainly see a really strong future for New Zealand wine in China.”

Chris Yorke says China’s rapidly growing taste for imported wine makes it an important target market.

“China is one of our top six markets and growing very strongly, it’s grown tenfold in the last four years.

“It’s an interesting market, almost one of our highest priced markets which is important for us.

"We offer more red wine in the mix of products we sell, which is a great opportunity to feature our pinot noir producers.”

A recent Rabobank wine report said the scale and durability of growth in Chinese demand for grape wine in recent years has been ‘nothing short of remarkable’.

French wines  dominate the Chinese wine market importing 40.5 million litres a year compared with New Zealand’s 1.5 million litres.