Another blow to Napa Valley: China’s ingesting ‘ban’ | EUROtoday

The Chinese authorities’s ban on ingesting at official and Communist Party occasions has dealt an surprising blow to main wine producers world wide.

In May, lawmakers in Beijing banned ingesting alcohol at authorities and get together occasions as a part of the nation’s ongoing austerity measures, the Wall Street Journal stories.

The transfer comes towards the background of different challenges to California’s vintners together with the consequences of President Donald Trump’s world commerce wars.

In 2025, U.S. exports of glowing wine to China reportedly elevated by 52.9 p.c within the first 9 months of 2025.

However, the web site Vinetur reported that U.S. wine exports total ended up dropping by 31.4 p.c by the top of 2025, with a lack of $300 million, the steepest drop of any of the world’s main wine producers and almost thrice worse than that of Australian winemakers. According to information compiled by Del Ray AMW, the U.S. downturn was significantly pronounced within the Chinese and Canadian markets.

This month The Independent reported that winemakers within the Napa and Sonoma valleys had been having to shut services and lay off lots of of employees for a wide range of causes – together with that Americans themselves are ingesting much less wine.

While the ingesting ban is not essentially meant for the broader Chinese public, a USDA report from 2025 analyzing the ban famous that there’s a tradition of “over-enforcement” in China, the place insurance policies just like the ingesting ban are adopted regionally.

“Some regions interpret “no alcohol during working hours” as a full weekday ban, and in some cases, officials must seek approval to drink on weekends or holidays,” the report notes. “This over-compliance strengthens the regulation’s impact and accelerates broader shifts in China’s drinking culture, particularly in high-end hospitality and banquet sectors.”

The report additional famous that “high-end wine segment is directly affected because it has traditionally relied on formal, high-status banquets,” and added that “initial wine sales fell by 50 percent” after the coverage was enacted, and that the drop might be worse for crimson wine exporters.

China started growing its imported wine within the mid-2000s. By 2017, its world wine imports grew from lower than 1 p.c to eight p.c.

Wining and eating was normal working process for a lot of Chinese officers, however austerity watchdogs started cracking down on the follow final yr. Nine officers even confronted disciplinary measures after an area official in Henan province died from overdrinking throughout a banquet in the course of the day.

It’s not simply officers chopping again. Because of wine’s affiliation with banquets and official capabilities, youthful Chinese folks do not usually flip to it for nights out or celebrations.

One Chinese girl, Wang Nan, 26, advised the WSJ she drinks as little crimson wine as doable as a result of it stains her lips and she or he would not benefit from the style. She stated she by no means serves crimson wine at occasions she hosts.

Australian vineyard Treasury Wine Estates stated it could maintain off on future shipments to China, and European drink firms Pernod Ricard and Diageo each stated they had been logging double-digit drops of their Chinese gross sales on account of the ban.

Chinese wine imports have been falling lately. They are at present at half of China’s peak wine-importing yr, 2018, when the nation purchased $3 billion value of overseas wine.

According to the WSJBorambola Wines, based mostly in Australia, earned 40 p.c of its revenue from Chinese gross sales as just lately as 2019. Over the final yr, it has not recorded a single sale. Tim McMullen, the proprietor of the vineyard, advised the paper that the dip in gross sales has pressured him to go away 30 p.c of his fruit to rot on the vine in consequence.

He stated that China beforehand was a robust market, however “it’s all changed.”