Moet toasts opening of first sparkling winery

The output of sparkling wine in Ningxia will be larger than the winery in Yunnan.

"In most of the world's major wine markets, sparkling wine accounts for just 0.9 to 3 percent of total demand," said Bedingham.

"But the 1 percent of China's wine market, which is still increasing, is a big number."

"I believe as a pioneer in the sparkling wine sector in China, we will achieve a high market share after we release it next year."

Six years ago, Moet Hennessy acquired Wenjun, a Chinese white spirits producer in Sichuan province, and Navarre said it has been moving quickly to sell Wenjun in luxury markets.

"Now we have a rich portfolio in China's luxury spirit and wine markets," said Navarre.

Statistics from International Wine and Spirit Research show that sales of wine and spirits in Asia-Pacific are forecast to overtake those in Western countries by 2016.

By then, the total amount of wine consumed every year is expected to rise from 3.39 billion cases to 3.68 billion cases, with 75 percent of that increase coming from China.