New trademark offers guarantee on Chinese wine quality

A new trademark open to Chinese wineries producing wines to a specific set of rules has been launched by a nationwide trade body to offer a quality guarantee to consumers.

The China Alcoholic Drinks Association (CADA) has registered ‘Estate Wine’ at the country’s trademark office. It hopes the certification will ‘open a new era for domestic wine quality control’.

Only Chinese wineries that produce and bottle their wines on site and fulfil a series of technical requirements, including on yields, vine age and storage facilities, can apply to use the trademark through the CADA.

The wine will then be tasted by a professional panel to examine the actual quality, said the association.

China’s domestic wine industry has lacked a comprehensive rating and classification system, with labels giving consumers very little indications about the quality of a wine.

‘The examination process for the Estate Wine trademark will hopefully serve as an example for the entire wine industry,’ Li Demei, vice-general secretary of the wine division of the CADA, told DecanterChina.com.

A management committee has been set up by the CADA to oversee the usage of the new trademark.

According to the CADA, the committee is formed of not only professionals from the industry, but also ‘media and companies using the trademark,’ which it said ensures the ‘transparency and openness’ of the judging process.

Once an Estate Wine trademark is granted, the winery can use it on a specific wine for three years; each year the quality of the wine will be re-examined, while the overall technical conditions of the winery itself is checked every three years, the association added.

‘To choose a Chinese wine of better quality, consumers don’t need to remember so many names of wineries anymore; they just need to look for the Estate Wine logo (pictured), as the mark means the quality is guaranteed by the reputation of CADA and the management committee,’ Li Demei said.

‘We consider Estate Wines as the breakthrough point for domestic wine quality control in China, which may lead to a new era for the industry.’

DecanterChina.com understands that the trademark is now open for application. No winery has yet entered for application to date.

*A certification mark referred to in this law is a sign controlled by an organisation capable of monitoring certain goods or services for use by organisations or persons other than such an organisation on their goods or services to certify the geographical origin, material, mode of manufacture, quality or other specific characteristics of the goods or services. (Article 3, Chapter I of the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China)

*Read more about the Estate Wine trademark from Li Demei's column for this week>>