Winemaker cracks tough Chinese market

Hein Koegelenberg of Leopard’s Leap and La Motte in the Franschhoek Valley got a foot in the door and in the current year has exported 2.8m bottles of wine to China, about 60% of South Africa’s total wine exported to China.

But it hasn’t been easy, because there are great differences between the South African and Chinese wine markets. In particular, the personal involvement of wine producers is very important in China.

About five years ago Koegelenberg realised that the American economy was running out of steam and he decided instead to apply his money and energy to try to get into Asia’s wine market.