Although Waitrose did not continue to stock the wine after the trial, a spokesman told the wine magazine Decanter that the cabernet gernischt was selling out "quickly, much faster than we expected, and we were thrilled with our customers' reaction to this new and unknown wine".

Pardoe said that Berry Bros' collaboration with Changyu is an important statement about the potential of Chinese wine. "This is just the tip of the iceberg," he said.

China is the eighth-largest producer of wine in the world and is forecast to be sixth-largest by 2016. Wine consumption in China has more than doubled in the past five years, and China is expected to become the second-largest wine consumer by value by 2016, up from third place today, according to Vinexpo, a wine industry trade fair.

Over the years, many foreign wine brands have established joint ventures with Chinese brands to produce wine for China's local market. But very little of this is exported overseas due to both a lack of brand awareness and a lack of financial motivation when demand in China's burgeoning domestic market is already hard to fulfill.

Pardoe said its cooperation model with Changyu is unique because it develops wine specifically for the European market. Looking to the future, he said, Berry Bros is willing to develop more wines with Changyu and other Chinese producers to help Chinese wine brands go global.

"As a high-quality wine merchant, our job is always to demonstrate the diversity and complexity of what is available in the world of wine, and the arrival of Chinese wines onto the world market is an important milestone."