How to Read a Chinese Wine Label: A Survival Guide

A Chinese wine label can look like a wall of beautiful but impenetrable characters. The good news: you do not need to speak Chinese to read it. About twenty characters tell you almost everything that matters. Learn them here, then test yourself on the label below.

Step 1: find the word "wine"

葡萄酒 (pútáojiǔ) means grape wine. It is made of 葡萄 (pútáo), grape, and 酒 (jiǔ), which means any alcoholic drink: beer, rice wine, spirits. This is why 葡萄酒 always specifies "grape". If a bottle says 酒 without 葡萄, it is probably not grape wine; ice wine (冰酒) is the main exception.

Step 2: the colour and style

• 红hóngred
• 白báiwhite
• 桃红táohóngrosé. Literally "peach red"
• 起泡qǐpàosparkling. Literally "rising bubbles"
• 冰酒bīngjiǔice wine

Step 3: dry or sweet?

This is the most useful thing on the label, because the Chinese market has always had many sweet wines.

• 干gāndry, up to 4 grams of sugar per litre
• 半干bàngānoff-dry, up to 12 grams
• 半甜bàntiánmedium-sweet, up to 45 grams
• 甜tiánsweet, above 45 grams

So the two words you will see most often are 干红 (gānhóng), dry red, and 干白 (gānbái), dry white. Fun fact: 干杯 (gānbēi), the famous Chinese toast, uses the same 干: it literally means "dry the cup".

Step 4: where, who and when

• 产区chǎnqūwine region. Look for a named place, such as 宁夏 (Níngxià), 新疆 (Xīnjiāng), 烟台 (Yāntái) or 云南 (Yúnnán)
• 贺兰山东麓Hèlánshān dōnglùHelan Mountain East, Ningxia's official wine region
• 酒庄jiǔzhuāngestate or château. Many Chinese wineries translate it as "Château" in their names
• 年份niánfènvintage, the year of the harvest
• 品种pǐnzhǒnggrape variety

And the grapes you are most likely to meet:

• 赤霞珠chìxiázhūCabernet Sauvignon. Literally "red cloud pearl"
• 马瑟兰mǎsèlánMarselan, a phonetic translation
• 蛇龙珠shélóngzhūCabernet Gernischt. Literally "snake dragon pearl"
• 美乐měilèMerlot. Literally "beautiful joy"
• 霞多丽xiáduōlìChardonnay

Step 5: the technical box

On the back label, Chinese law requires a set of technical information:

• 原料与辅料yuánliào yǔ fǔliàoingredients. Usually 葡萄汁 (grape juice) or 葡萄 (grapes) and 二氧化硫 (sulphur dioxide)
• 酒精度jiǔjīngdùalcohol content
• 净含量jìng hánliàngvolume, for example 750毫升 (750 ml)
• 灌装日期guànzhuāng rìqībottling date

The trap: bottling date is not vintage

This is the most common mistake. Many Chinese labels show a date prominently, and it is usually the bottling date (灌装日期), required by law. It tells you when the wine was bottled, not when the grapes were picked. The real vintage, if stated, appears next to 年份. A wine bottled in 2023 may come from the 2020 harvest, or it may have no vintage at all.

The quality check

Here is a simple rule. At the lower end of the market, some wines sold as Chinese are made partly with imported bulk wine. The first sign of a serious wine is a label that names a specific estate (酒庄), a specific region (产区) and a vintage (年份). The more precise the label, the more the producer is willing to stand behind it.

Good news for European readers: Chinese wines sold in Europe must also carry a label in a European language. But the original Chinese label is still there, and now you can read it.

In one sentence

Find 葡萄酒, check 干 for dry, look for 酒庄, 产区 and 年份, and never confuse the bottling date with the vintage.