One of the more potent symbols of the westernisation of China has been the extent to which the Chinese have taken to wine. Consumption is rising at an estimated 15 per cent a year, so that not just Shanghai and Beijing but also the second-tier Chinese cities have become more popular destinations for French wine exporters than New York and London. So effective has the bordeaux sales machine been that a considerable proportion of the fortunes recently made in China have been spent on red bordeaux - especially the grandest names and particularly, for a while, the first-growth Chateau Lafite - with a direct inflationary effect on global wine prices. Then, as the Chinese discovered France's second most famous red wine, burgundy prices rose, too. China's new connoisseurs have even begun to invest in wine estates themselves. According to Bordeaux estate agents Maxwell Storrie Baynes, more than 50 local wine chateaux are already in Chinese hands and demand continues unabated.
全世界都親眼目睹了中國的西方化，其中一個有代表性的現象是葡萄酒在中國人群中的普及程度。據估計，目前中國的葡萄酒消費年增長率在15%。這么高的增長率令法國葡萄酒出口商發現，不僅是北京和上海，連中國二線城市都有著比紐約和倫敦更加旺盛的需求。波爾多紅葡萄酒在中國市場上的淘金量將這個產區的營銷能力之強大體現得淋漓盡致，尤其是最有名的莊園銷售得極其成功，而其中最典型的就是拉菲莊園(Chateau Lafite)————這個莊園的葡萄酒在中國銷售得如此成功，以至于出現了全球性的價格上漲。后來，中國人又將目光投射到了法國第二著名的產區勃艮地(Burgundy, Bourgogne)，結果這個產區的葡萄酒價格也提高了。不僅如此，中國新晉的葡萄酒行家早已經開始在葡萄酒莊園領域中進行投資。波爾多莊園代理公司馬克斯威爾-斯多里-拜恩(Maxwell Storrie Baynes)發布的數據顯示，當地已經有超過五十家酒莊由中國人執掌，而且莊園購買需求仍然非常旺盛。