In mid-November, China’s top regulatory and trade body for alcoholic beverages, the China Alcoholic Drinks Association (CADA), announced a new wine rating system for domestic and imported wines. The move, which was coordinated with the China National Food Industry Association and the Chinese Society for Horticultural Science, is yet another sign that China’s fast-growing wine industry is taking steps to assert its clout and prestige on the world stage.

The new wine rating system, in marked contrast to the 100-point scale popularized by Western wine critics such as Robert Parker, will be a new 10-point rating system. While the wine ratings will take into account traditional factors such as color, aroma, palate, and body, it will much more focused around Chinese tastes and preferences. It will also take into account the Chinese culinary tradition.

In explaining the move, the CADA noted that the current Western wine rating systems “no longer apply to current demands.” For example, Western wine culture is much more focused around the idea of food-wine pairings, in which a single wine is used to pair with a single dish. However, in China, there is much more of a “round table culture,” in which large groups of diners sitting at a table share a wide range of dishes, in no particular order. With this round table culture, the idea of trying to pair wines with such a wide variety of dishes just is not as relevant.

And, in terms of specific Chinese tastes and preferences, CADA pointed to the differences in tea-drinking traditions in the UK and China. In China, tea is usually black, with no additional flavor or sweetener. In the UK, however, there is much more of an emphasis on flavored teas and sweetened teas. Thus, in an analogous way, wines that might appeal to a wine drinker in Paris or London might not appeal to a wine drinker in Shanghai or Beijing.

Wine industry experts see the creation of the new wine rating system as part of a bigger push by the Chinese government and different regulatory bodies to get involved in growing and nurturing the Chinese wine industry. For example, the Chinese government has been helping domestic wine producers develop prestigious wine chateaux in up-and-coming wine regions and improve the overall quality and level of Chinese winemaking expertise.

The big question, of course, is whether the Chinese wine industry – and especially domestic consumers – will fully embrace the new 10-point rating system. For now, the use of the wine rating system will not be mandatory. Instead, it will be used as the basis for a national wine recommendation system.

Given the rating system was only introduced in November, it is quite likely that importers, producers, and consumers will not fully embrace the new wine rating system for another six to twelve months. But that’s still plenty of time until China is set to become the world’s second-biggest wine consumer market sometime around 2021. As a result, it’s time for producers and importers to take notice if they want to strengthen their position in the Chinese wine industry.