Wine importers making attempt to go local

But Wang Jiaqi, business development director of the Shanghai Wine Exchange, is less optimistic.

"Wine aficionados usually don't change for another wine. The taste matters the most, as it cannot be duplicated," she said.

She added that they have not seen any fluctuations in the market yet and expect little difference even if a tax is imposed.

Maximilian Spitzy, general manager of Ezee Beverages in Shanghai, the sole importer of several wines from Germany and Austria, said that his company is pursuing increased marketing differentiation of its products.

"An increased tax will not be a big issue for luxury wine consumers who are willing to pay 2,500 yuan ($400) for a bottle of wine," he said.

But Spitzy stressed that "higher taxes are never a good thing". For one thing, consumers will not be able to enjoy wines of very good quality at reasonable prices.

"Ultimately, higher taxes will exert the most impact on small European wine brands, which cannot afford higher costs. It is a great loss to Chinese consumers. But certainly for big brands, it won't matter as much," he added.

According to the London-based research institute International Wine and Spirit Research, China imported 266 million liters of bottled wines last year, up 10 percent year-on-year. More than two-thirds came from the European Union and French wines alone accounted for 48 percent of the imported wine last year.

Euro Shop Trade SRL was the first company in Shanghai to import wine from Romania in 1996. It was also the first company in Shanghai to import wine from Moldova.

"Romania is a member state of the EU. Once a higher tax is imposed on wines imported from the EU, our price will of course be affected.

"For Moldova, which is not a member state, there would be no difference. But after all, international companies like us are the source of such wines. We can lever the prices and thus raise the prices in the market," said Tian Yu, general manager of Euro Shop.

"There are a growing number of Chinese consumers who can understand wines and have a demand for those of good quality. The market for French wines in China is overdeveloped. Therefore, some consumers would opt for lesser-known wines, where they can make sure of the quality.

"That is also a reason that wines from the New World have been expanding their reputation rapidly in China over the past few years," she said.