China’s Wine Buyers Trade Up for Mid-Autumn as Prices Slide

China’s wine merchants are seeing a paradox this Mid-Autumn Festival: customers are buying better wines without necessarily spending more. Falling prices are bringing prestigious labels within reach, but squeezing the margins of the businesses selling them.

Interviews by Vino Joy News with wholesalers and merchants serving corporate and bulk buyers across China point to a subdued festive season. Orders have arrived late, customers are scrutinizing prices, and wine is losing its place in some gift baskets. Where demand persists, buyers are gravitating toward recognizable names or prioritizing the wine itself over elaborate packaging.

Business entertaining and gifting remain important sales channels for China’s wine industry despite declining consumption. The Mid-Autumn Festival, traditionally one of its busiest periods, offers a revealing snapshot of how those purchasing habits are changing.

Mooncakes stay. Wine goes.

For Wu Yonglei, general manager of Fond Wine, a major wine merchant in China’s affluent Fujian, the change is visible in what customers leave out of their gifts.

“There is less entertaining and gift-giving around the festival than there used to be,” Wu said. “Previously, people would give mooncakes accompanied by wine. This year, they are paying more for the mooncakes but dropping the wine.”

“After all, mooncakes are more important to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Wine isn’t as essential.”

Xu Xiaotong, general manager of Dijon Wine Cellar in the northeastern province of Liaoning, has seen a similar shift.

“People now give wine only when they know the recipient drinks it regularly,” he said. “In the past, wine would accompany most gifts.”

Their observations suggest that wine can no longer count on being a default choice for corporate gifting. Imported wine once carried considerable cachet among some affluent Chinese consumers, who associated it with fashion and sophistication. As that novelty has faded, competition from other drinks and inconsistent pricing have weakened its position at business occasions.

Wu said the shift was particularly apparent in Guangdong and Fujian, historically two important wine markets. Wine has become optional at some occasions where it once featured prominently, and fewer customers are choosing it as a gift.

Yet the regional picture is uneven.

“I was in Shanghai a few days ago, and premium wines were doing quite well across the region,” Wu said. “Some high-end wines and fine Burgundy were moving noticeably ahead of the festival.”

Fond Wine also serves Shanghai and the neighboring provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang through its sister company, Grand Wines.

A late rush replaces advance orders

Even where demand has held up, it has taken longer to materialize.

“Only in the past few days, with the festival approaching, have some customers started stocking up and things become busy,” Wu said. “Normally, that would have started two weeks earlier.”

Hong Boyong, CEO of Pran Cellar, a wine importer focused on markets including Shanghai and Guangdong, described a similarly abrupt turnaround after a disappointing start to September.

“At the start of the month, it felt as though this Mid-Autumn season would be especially bad. Many industry peers I spoke with were very disappointed,” he said. “In previous years, business would already have been picking up by then.”

“But after a couple of weeks, we found that demand was still there – and it arrived very suddenly. Our orders have jumped over the past few days, even though the festival is now very close.”

Hong sees the late orders as evidence that customers are buying to meet immediate needs rather than stocking up in anticipation of demand. That reluctance to hold inventory has become a defining feature of China’s wine distribution market.

Familiar names, less packaging

When customers do buy, recognizable labels retain an advantage.

Penfolds Bin 389 and Bin 407, along with Bordeaux classified growths, remain prominent choices for Mid-Autumn purchases, merchants said.

“For well-known Bordeaux estates, buyers are drawing a firm line at RMB1,500 [about US$211], with more purchases around RMB1,000 [US$141],” Xu said. “At lower prices, the main choices are Penfolds’ two core labels, Bin 407 and Bin 389.”

Dong Huaicheng, general manager of Medoc1855 Trading Co., Ltd. in Tangshan, Hebei province, said some consumers with greater wine knowledge specifically request Penfolds or Lafite. Others seek the merchant’s advice and tend to favor boutique wines.

The recognition enjoyed by Penfolds and Lafite helps generate demand during the festive season. As Vino Joy News previously reported, lower-priced vintages of Carruades de Lafite, Château Lafite Rothschild’s second wine, were already experiencing widespread shortages before the Mid-Autumn sales peak.

But a familiar name is not the only consideration. Hong said gift buyers were paying more attention to what was inside the bottle and less to its presentation.

“People are more practical about their spending now and don’t attach much importance to gift boxes,” he said. “If a wine doesn’t come with one, many don’t see any need to buy a box separately. A bag will do. What matters is that the wine is good.”

“Many consumers feel that a cheap wine costing less than RMB100 [US$14] isn’t presentable enough as a gift—they might as well give fruit,” he added. “If they are going to give wine, they want something they would enjoy drinking themselves and consider worthwhile.”

Peak season brings little pricing relief

That emphasis on quality has not reduced buyers’ sensitivity to price. Major brands, prestigious estates and boutique wines continue to face downward pressure, even during the festive season.

“Customers scrutinize prices very closely,” Xu said. “There are so many places displaying prices now. Some of those prices may not reflect what you can actually buy the wine for, but customers take them at face value.”

“As a seller, you either stand your ground and explain that different channels have different prices, or accept a smaller margin.”

Weak consumption and high inventories have weighed on prices across China’s alcohol market. Over the past two years, major baijiu and wine brands have experienced falling retail prices, with some products selling below distributors’ purchase costs.

Brand owners have tried to restore pricing discipline. As Vino Joy News previously reported, Treasury Wine Estates restricted supplies of Penfolds Bin 407 between July and September.

A Penfolds distributor in eastern China, who requested anonymity, said the policy had raised prices within the distribution chain but delivered little improvement at retail.

“Treasury’s supply controls have indeed raised Bin 407’s price within the distribution channel,” the distributor said. “But competition from instant-delivery retail platforms and parallel imports means its retail price has not risen noticeably this Mid-Autumn season. As a result, distributors’ margins have actually narrowed.”

Better bottles for the same budget

For consumers, however, lower prices can create an opportunity to trade up.

Xie Jianjiang, general manager of fine wine merchant Ningbo Free Trade Zone Yongyu Trade Co., Ltd. in Zhejiang, said falling prices had made prestigious Bordeaux wines more attractive and broadened their customer base.

“Among my customers and contacts, choosing well-known Bordeaux estates as the first option for red wine gifts has become an established habit,” he said.

“These wines offer increasingly good value, which has broadened their appeal considerably. People who know and love wine tend to choose them.”

Xie said the trend extended to both the grand vins and second wines of estates ranked from first to fifth growth.

Hong has also seen customers buy better wines while keeping their gift budgets broadly unchanged.

“Retail prices are indeed falling. In the past, a wine that consumers bought for a little over RMB200 [about US$28] might have had an importer’s wholesale price of only a few dozen yuan,” he said. “Today, a wine selling for a little over RMB200 may cost the importer more than RMB100 [US$14].”

“So consumers may be spending roughly the same amount, but they are getting better wines for their money.”