Image taken on June 24, 2015 shows Gabriel Molina, the winemaker in charge of Premium wines of Trivento Winery, reviewing the barrels, in Maipu city, Mendoza province, Argentina. (Xinhua/Martin Zabala)

BUENOS AIRES, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- China has great potential as a wine export market for Argentina, due to growing demand, Argentinean experts said on Wendesday.

"Wine has recently become fashionable in Asia. If we look at China, the market remains relatively small, but presents great potential for the coming decades," Cristobal Lapania, director general of the Don Cristobal wine company, and Lucia Espejo, an oenologist with the company, told Xinhua.

They remarked that "in China, wine is frequently used as a gift, to welcome someone or as a status symbol. It is very common for wine to be given as a gift for the Chinese New Year."

Furthermore, wine imports into the northern port of Tianjin increased in the first nine months of this year by 46 percent to reach 62 million liters, for a value of over 130 million U.S. dollars, according to the Tianjin Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

The Don Cristobal firm was also awarded one of the top prizes of the Decanter World Asia Wine Awards 2016, held in Hong Kong, and organized by the prestigious Decanter wine magazine. The winning wine was the Triana Cosecha 2011, elaborated with three types of grapes, Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz.

"It is always good, especially in new markets, to obtain important prizes as we obtained from Decanter. Frequently, such prizes are what influence people at the moment of buying," said Lapania and Espejo, who added that Don Cristobal takes part in at least two wine fairs in Asia a year.