Raising his glass

London is a long way to go to grab a bottle of red if you're in Beijing, and many of Berry Bros & Rudd's customers keep their wine in the company's London storage facility, where they can be certain the bottles will be kept in premium condition until they are prepared to drink it or sell it.

But Berry says his customers are not only buying for investment. He says his Chinese customers are enthusiastic drinkers of wine.

"Anybody who buys just for investment is missing the point of it," Berry says. "My father used to always say, 'you invest in wine because you invest in future pleasure.'"

He says that is what is different about the wine boom in China compared to the United States in the 1970s or 1980s, which is where the investment buying started.

"In those days the wines weren't drunk. They were trophies. Here we find everyone is drinking wine, which is perfect, because that's why God invented it."

He says he has noticed a growing interest by Chinese drinkers in Italian wine, an encouraging sign in a country that has previously had an almost one-track focus on France.

"If China just buys wine from France, it will be not a terrible thing but it will distort the wine world massively, in terms of prices and availability," says Berry. "And also in terms of interest. Part of the joy of learning about wine is learning it comes from all over the world. They are also making fantastic stuff here (in China)."