Britain’s oldest wine merchant is giving its official stamp of approval to Chinese wine by stocking four wines produced in China from European grapes, a production shift which could help China muscle into the world wine market.

Berry Bros & Rudd, which dates back 314 years and is a supplier to the royal family, said it was the first major British retailer to put Chinese wines on sale alongside some of the world’s finest wines.

The four wines on offer, a Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend and three ice wines priced from £19 to £65, are from Chateau Changyu in eastern Shandong province, which is China’s oldest and largest winery.

Mark Pardoe, Berry Bros’s master of wine, said they were different from most Chinese wines produced for domestic consumption as they were made from European grapes and to European standards.

China is the eighth largest producer of wine in the world and is forecast to be sixth largest by 2016.

Wine consumption in China has more than doubled in the last five years, according to Vinexpo, a wine industry expert, and China is expected to become the second largest wine consumer by value by 2016, up from third place today.

But to date, most wine has been made for Chinese consumption and is not suitable for export and overseas tastes.

Pardoe said China’s huge size and location, with a key climate band in the northern hemisphere, meant it was home to regions with climates capable of producing good wine as shown by its production of wine for the local market since the 1890s.

UK supermarket chain Waitrose last year trialed a Chinese wine made from the local grape specialty Cabernet Gernischt but a spokeswoman said this was no longer on sale.

Pardoe said it was not until Austrian winemaker Lenz Moser, whose family has run wineries for 15 generations, teamed up with Chateau Changyu several years ago that the export potential started to emerge with the first good wines ready this year.

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