China’s imported wine sector continued to decelerate on the back of already weakened imports from 2020, sending worrying signs that the prospects for imported wines are getting increasingly dimmed in the world’s sixth biggest wine market, as wineries bemoan the doors to the vast market is gradually closing.

The latest data showed that the country’s wine imports in the first 11 months of 2021 weakened further on 2020’s low comparing base.

From January to November, imported wines declined by 0.3% in volume to 388.6 million liters but overall value slid further by 13.7% to RMB 9.87 billion (US$1.54 billion) over the same period in 2020.

What seems to have emerged from last year is domestic wine drinkers’ growing interest in domestically produced wines. A few of the country’s wineries in Ningxia including Silver Heights, Xige Winery and Château Leirenshou all reported positive sales last year.

Marco Milani, CEO of family-owned Silver Heights in Ningxia, revealed that the winery saw its sales grew by more than 60% in value last year, driven by brisk sales in domestic market. Consistently one of the best wines produced from China, the winery expects an uptick in export market in 2022 as well. “There is a lot of curiosity around Chinese wine from abroad,” he affirmed.