In a sign of the wine times, one of the world’s most authoritative wine publications, Decanter, said it plans to launch a Chinese version of its website.

The move comes after another top wine publication, described as the wine bible for the French, La Revue du Vin de France, launched a Chinese version of its magazine last year.

French luxury crystal glassmaker Baccarat is hoping to revolutionise the experience of drinking wine with a new design that promises to settle the age-old argument between alcohol and the grape.

The tulip-shaped glass, with a wide flat base and a vertical “chimney”, will prevent the alcohol from overpowering the aroma of wine when the glass is swirled.

A bottle of French wine dating back to 1774 and dubbed “the wine of kings and the king of wines” fetched $49,200 at auction in Geneva on Tuesday.

While China is drinking more and more wine each year it appears also that consumers are drinking more and more of the same type of wine.

According to a recent survey produced to help promote May’s Vinexpo Asia-Pacific event — the largest wine industry gathering in the region — 99.5 percent of wine drunk in China is still wine, and 91 percent of the still wine drunk is red wine.

Champagne maker Moët-Hennessy has invested in a vineyard in the mountains of China that will produce red wine for the domestic Chinese market.

Luxury brand LVMH has signed an agreement with a major alcohol, wine and spirits distributor in China, VATS, to develop 30 hectares of vineyards at an altitude of 2,400 m in the mountains of Yunnan, in southwestern China.

The luxury Champagne brand had previously acquired a Chinese spirits brand from the Sichuan area of China five years ago. Last year, Moët-Hennessy also began production of a premium sparkling wine in the province of Ningxia Hui.

World consumption of wine increased slightly in 2011 thanks to added consumers in the U.S. and China according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine.

The organisation, an intergovernmental industry group, said 242 million hectolitres (mhl) of wine were drunk last year, up 0.7 percent from 2010.