Pillitteri Estates is a family-run winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. a place where vino lovers can get up close and personal with the wine-making process before taking home a bottle. But increasingly, some of Pillitteris best customers are buying their products more than 10,000 kilometres away.

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About 30 per cent of Pillitteri Estates business is exports these days, says chief executive officer Charlie Pillitteri, with the majority going to Asian countries such as South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and China. Increasing sales in Asia is a major part of the winerys business plan, he said.

It takes a bit of effort on our side, dealing with the language and the culture, said Mr. Pillitteri. But in terms of all of our customers, I think the Asians are the most aggressive and the most interesting.

Canadian wine exports have increased steadily over the past few years from $19-million in 2009, to close to $38-million in 2011. And a large part of that bump in sales is due to the emergence of a vibrant Asian market, and its appetite for Canadian icewine.

While icewine exports to some countries fell in the wake of the global economic downturn (including to the United States), sales to China and Hong Kong have been rising. In fact, Canadian icewine exports to China have increased by more than 1,000 per cent since 2004.

Its because of this potential for profit that wineries are seeking to capture the attention of Asian wine connoisseurs. But exporting to that market is not without its challenges.

If it was easy everyone would do it, says James Stewart, president and CEO of Vancouvers Paradise Ranch Wines.

More than 50 per cent of Paradise Ranchs business is exports, says Mr. Stewart, mostly to China but also Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Its relatively easy to get people interested in Canadian icewine, he says, because of our reputation for award-winning, high-quality products. People know we make the best icewines in the world.

Combine that with the fact that in many of these countries theyre effectively new to the culture of grape wine consumption, says Mr. Stewart. If you put a bottle of the finest Margaux on a table and icewine on a table and brought some person whos never consumed wine in their life before, theyre going to prefer the icewine because the body is biologically designed to appreciate sweetness.

Read more from the original source:
How Canadian wineries are bottling success in Asia