Belt and Road creates opportunities for French wine in China

Two years after meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping at a ceremony organized by the Hotel de Ville in Lyon in 2014, French wine maker Dominique Piron is sending 36 containers containing 18,000 bottles of Beaujolais to China.

Thanks to this chance encounter, Piron says that today one-third of their annual turnover comes from customers in China, and the estate has doubled its sales of Beaujolais to China. Pairing well with Chinese cuisine, Beaujolais has become so famous in China that the Maison created a special vintage sporting a red and gold label and limited-edition bottles decorated with a rooster for the Chinese New Year.

When he heard about the Silk Road Economic Belt (also known as Belt and Road Initiative), Piron saw an opportunity to develop a long-term economic relationship with Asia. This includes the opportunity to use the new freight rail links that join Europe with Asia.

By the end of 2018, with the rail link between France and China and the support from the cities of Lyon and Wuhan, Piron will be ready to send off the first container of wine he will ship to China by train.