FRUITFUL: South African vineyards producing world class wine Courtesy of Sun&Diamonds

Wine from Africa? To some Chinese wine drinkers, this is a strange concept. In fact, there are vineyards all over Africa. But it is down south in the Cape region of South Africa where the continent's, and even the world's, finest wines are produced in the eyes of Si Yang, a South African wine importer, and the marketing manager of Sun & Diamonds.

Today, the best of South Africa's wines are displayed at Sun & Diamonds wine store, which is located in a quiet and high-end community in the eastern part of Beijing.

Si got involved in the South African wine import industry only two years ago. But as with most imported food and beverage traders, he has been thinking of how to get his product noticed in a sea of look-alike competitors. Setting himself apart from other wine entrepreneurs by using video, blogs and other forms of technology, Sun & Diamonds has adopted traditional shop-front marketing.

"A wine store shouldn't be like a noisy club," said the young wine trader. "A quiet environment is conducive to wine's sales." He said that the best way to discover what you like is to go to a tasting at a specialist wine shop and exchange views about wine before you purchase.

Rivaling the best

Si believes that top quality South African wine allows the company to shift focus from Sino-South African business consulting, to that of the South African wine trade.

South Africa, on parallel with France and Italy, is one of the world's leading wine producers and exporters. The country's wine culture, which dates back some 350 years, is one that both reflects the country's colonial and apartheid past. This culture also shines with the potential and expectation of the modern wine industry.

South African wine is described by an experienced wine taster as "very smooth wine full of rich fruity flavor."

It has always been said that South African wine has the unique position of straddling both the classic Old World wines made in France, Spain and Italy, and New World wines of Australia, New Zealand and Chile. This is in terms of the wine tradition of tastes and styles. But Si believes it can offer the Chinese wine-drinking population new experiences in flavor.

"My friend initially thought the wine was priced at about 500-600 yuan ($77-93) per bottle after his blind tasting," he said. "In fact, it is only priced at less than 300 yuan ($46), only half the price of similar French wines."