It is a bright, spring morning in Chile’s Maipo Valley and at the sprawling vineyard of Cousi?o Macul, one of Chile’s smaller wine producers, a tour guide asks visitors to guess what its newest export market is. “China,” he tells the astonished group.

Sales abroad have more than quadrupled since 2000, reaching a record 700m litres with a value of $1.7bn last year. Those figures have helped turn the country in to the world’s fifth-largest wine exporter.

Now the sector is eyeing the world’s most populous country. Wines of Chile, the trade body that represents more than 100 producers – and 95 per cent of the industry’s exports – is targeting what it thinks will fast turn into one of its largest export markets. China is currently Chile’s sixth most important market for bottled wines, compared with 24th in 2005.