Natural wine is gaining traction in China, and the market’s growth potential may be limitless, according to Isabelle Legeron MW, founder of Raw Wine and France’s first female Master of Wine, who believes only “sky is the limit” once it catches on.
“This offers enormous potential for growers seeking representation in the country,” Legeron told Vino Joy News following Raw Wine’s overwhelmingly successful debut in Shanghai this May, “Because once they’re in, and the market for natural wine grows, then the sky’s the limit.”
The global wine trade has struggled worldwide since Covid, and natural wine in China seems to have been no exception. But the good news, according to Legeron is that the tide seems to be turning. “Trade is picking back up again and the market for natural wine throughout China seems to be more buoyant than it was even last year, which is exciting,” she said.
She credited the country’s size, diversity, and entrepreneurial spirit for creating a fertile environment for emerging wine categories.
“China is a market with enormous potential – not just in terms of its size and diversity of big cities but also because of its entrepreneurism and its relative ‘new’ness on the (grape) wine world stage, which means it isn’t bogged down in how things ought to be done,” she explained, “What’s more, unlike the US which is large, yes, but also very fragmented due to protectionist State attitudes to liquor laws, China is huge and a very free market once you’re past the border.”
Legeron’s optimism followed the Raw Wine fair held May 17 at Shanghai’s Bridge 8 Art Space. The event, one of the world’s leading natural wine fairs, drew more than 1,000 visitors and sparked a wave of online enthusiasm.
On Xiaohongshu (little red book), China’s popular lifestyle platform, users described the event as “a natural wine paradise.” One post read, “The best part is being able to try 100 wines. The downside? Still not enough.”
Founded in 2012, Raw Wine showcases organic, biodynamic, low-intervention and natural wines. The fair has been held in cities including London, New York, Los Angeles, Montreal and Toronto. This year marked its first foray into Asia, with shows in Tokyo and Shanghai.
According to Legeron, feedback from attendees—including importers, professionals, and consumers—was overwhelmingly positive.
“We have had universally positive feedback from everyone involved,” she said, “which is brilliant news as it means this won’t be the last that China sees of us! Overall we’re delighted that it was a hugely successful inaugural RAW WINE in China.”
Natural Wine Is No Stranger to China
Natural wine began attracting attention among Chinese consumers as early as 2021, driven in part by its artistic labels and social media appeal. On Xiaohongshu, the category gained popularity among younger drinkers looking for personalised and unconventional wine experiences.
Natural wine bars have since appeared across major cities. In 2023, searches for “natural wine” on restaurant review app Dianping, the country’s biggest dining app, yielded over 83,000 results—far outpacing the 26,000 for “craft beer.”
Retailers have responded as well. Freshippo, Alibaba’s offline supermarket chain, has been stocking wines labelled as “natural wine style” for years, often featuring them in prominent shelf space.
Still, the category has faced skepticism. On Xiaohongshu, criticisms such as “natural wine tastes bad” and “it’s just a scam” remain common.
Ian Dai, founder of Xiaopu Wines and an exhibitor at the Raw Wine fair, acknowledged that earlier enthusiasm may have been driven more by aesthetics than taste.
“Those years of hype around natural wine weren’t always about the wine itself,” he said. “People bought it because it looked cool or made for good photos—not because they were serious consumers.”
But Dai believes the market is maturing. A growing number of consumers, he said, are drawn to the philosophy behind natural wine and are willing to support it long-term.
“Most of them are urban freelancers or creatives—people working in visual arts or writing,” he said. “They’re not interested in mass production or uniformity. They want wines with personality. Rituals don’t matter to them; authenticity does.”
China’s Scale Creates Big Opportunities
Despite being a niche within China’s broader wine market, natural wine producers stand to gain from the country’s sheer size.
“We actually saw this first hand pre-Covid, during one of our London fairs, where a few European importers came to me complaining that one of their Chinese counterparts visiting the fair had just bought up one grower’s entire production!” she exclaimed.
She said the youthful enthusiasm for natural wine in China sets the stage for long-term growth—especially as many consumers are discovering the category through local winemakers rather than foreign brands.
“As far as I can see, the market for natural wine in China can only go from strength to strength, not least because of the youth of its fans,” she said. “That was one of my personal delights of the fair – witnessing the energy and open-mindedness of the young fans for whom natural wine really resonates. A lot of them have discovered natural wine not through international producers but thanks to their own homegrown heroes, like Ian Dai. These young producers are charting a course for China’s own natural wine production and I can’t wait to see where it all leads.”
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