Virtual vintners toppling wine importers in China

Hunter Valley, Australia

WU Zhendong sees himself as something of a wine buff. The 25-year-old lawyer from China's western city of Chengdu is a member of his local wine club, likes to drink Chateauneuf-du-Pape - and now, like many of his peers, buys most of his wine online.

Mr Wu reflects a major shift in China's US$14.2 billion wine market, where increasingly price-savvy shoppers are driving a boom in online trade, upending the fast-growing market that has long been dominated by large-scale importers.