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Most Chinese wines that do make it overseas generally land in the low-price bin by search vehicle, said Karl Storchmann, an economist at New York University and editor of the Journal of Wine Economics. This is little different from the course of wine history in Chile, South Africa and California: They evolved beyond producing massive quantities of lower-end wines to eventually yield a handful of strong names distinguished by their quality.

China “will need a few flagship brands to be able to compete at the high end,” Storchmann said.

Among international consumers, not even China’s Big Three have gained much traction. In New York, tracking down a bottle of Chinese-made grape wine was nearly impossible.

After several calls to liquor stores, large wine distributors and restaurants, International Business Times was able to find only a couple of Chinese imported grape wines. Even New York’s high-end wine shops that keep a stock of international wines didn’t carry any Chinese grape wine. The only success was at Chinatown’s Yoshi Wine and Liquor, which carried a limited selection of cheap Chinese wines. The two available -- Chefoo red wine, a brand owned by Changyu, and a Kuei Hua Chen Chiew dessert wine, produced by Beijing’s Dragon Seal Wines -- were each priced at $4.50. (Their quality, after a quick tasting in the newsroom, was largely deemed to be consistent with their rock-bottom price.)

For now, China’s bid to export higher-quality wine remains limited largely to Hong Kong and Macau. “There’s far more money to be made at home than in selling abroad,” Boyce said.

With China’s growing middle class expected to surge to half a billion people by the end of this decade, that gives Chinese winemakers an extraordinary opportunity: They can continue to reap the spoils of a burgeoning domestic market. Meanwhile, wine buyers outside are not yet likely to encounter bottles bearing Chinese labels.

“The appetite for ‘sell a car in japan’ wines outside Japan is very limited,” Nouman said. “If you think about cars, Japan would be the place that comes to mind.”