The surge in imports is largely the result of an increase in bulk wine being sent from Australia, Chile and elsewhere in 6,000-gallon bags. That wine is then combined with local ingredients and sold as Chinese bottled wine, often with names such as Dynasty or Great Wall, experts said.

"It's all part of the luxury goods thing that's going on, why the men are buying Zegna suits and the ladies are buying Louis Vuitton bags. They've been traveling the world," said Don St. Pierre Sr., co-founder and chairman of ASC Fine Wines, the largest wine importer and distributor in China. "It's really starting with the new emerging middle class, and moving up to the richest people."

As wine becomes the latest fashion accessory, MBA students are learning about wine appreciation, executives are asking how to build private wine cellars and tastings have graduated from paper cups to glasses, attracting sell-out crowds.

Chinese restaurants such as the high-end Tian Di Yi Jia, just off Tiananmen Square, offer wines that are "full flavored, rich in oak" and often sipped in private VIP rooms. Owner Robert Cho can recommend what goes best with marinated fresh abalone, hairy crab leg or yam with preserved plums.

When a secretary called from Shanghai earlier this month to make a reservation for her boss, an executive in the financial industry, Cho suggested the Chateau Chambeau Lussac St. Emilion, or, alternatively, the Chateau Gruaud-Larose Sarget de Gruaud-Larose St. Julien, which at $126 is the cheapest bottle on the menu. The most expensive is a Pomerol, a 1994 Petrus that sells for $2,154 a bottle.

"Half our Chinese guests don't know much about wine," Cho said. "They know Chateau Lafite, Chateau Margaux, but they don't know California or Australian wines. People know Lafite as a benchmark, like Rolls-Royce or Dior. . . . They buy wines like they buy watches and cars."

The other half are familiar with imported wines, Cho said, because "they study abroad, have a good position and know that wine is part of Western food culture."

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