95% of China's top 100 selling wines are corked

It is well known that the Chinese wine industry and consumers have been favouring cork-sealed wines for many years, but how much do they love cork? According to a recent study of the top 100 best-selling wines in China in 2021, the Chinese market has a strong preference for cork and overwhelmingly outperforms artificial corks.

Specifically, 95 of the top 100 best-selling wines are corked.

The Portuguese Cork Association (APCOR) conducted this research using retail market data collected and provided by market research firm NielsenIQ. Wine retail data was collected from various hypermarkets, supermarkets and mini-supermarkets in 24 Chinese cities in 2021 to determine the top 100 best-selling wines, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Hefei, Wuhan, Changsha, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Chongqing, Shenyang, Harbin, Kunming, Jinan, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Dalian, Fuzhou, Xi'an, Wuxi, Suzhou, Ningbo, Dongguan and Xiamen. Representatives from Nielsen IQ were on hand to oversee the cork verification process for these 100 best-selling wines.

The composition of the top 100 best-selling wines in China in 2021 is as follows.

The results of the study show that cork is the true "wine packaging of choice" in China, winning in every respect.

95 of the top 100 best-selling wines are corked. The average price per litre for these 95 wines was RMB 208.51, while the average price per litre for the five wines with artificial corks was RMB 86.56. The average price per litre for the 100 wines was RMB 202.4.

All 56 domestic wines were corked, while 39 of the 44 imported wines (89%) were corked.

In terms of sales, the first 21 of the 100 best-selling wines were corked, until the 22nd wine was corked with an artificial material.
In terms of average price per litre, the 10 most expensive bottles in the study were all corked.