As I have had occasion to write numerous times before, China is not a single wine market. It is a system of cities, each shaped by fundamentally different consumption logics. Shanghai, Chengdu, and Shenzhen illustrate this clearly. In Shanghai, wine is understood. In Chengdu, it is used. In Shenzhen, it is selected—quickly, and often comparatively.
These are not stages of the same market. They are distinct systems. The question, therefore, is no longer whether to enter China, but how to position within it.