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This article is translated from the Chinese-language original of
Commentary on China's Wine Industry, Volume 1.
The Spring Festival zodiac IP inherently boasts nationwide public attention, yet it has been reduced to a speculative tool for most domestic wineries to pursue quick profits: blindly following trends to attach superficial labels, lacking long-term planning, and launching related products temporarily only before the Spring Festival. As a result, domestic zodiac wines have neither quality support nor cultural connotations, quickly disappearing from the market after the festival and failing to form long-term brand value. More awkwardly, most of these zodiac wines cannot gain market recognition, and enterprises also have to bear costs such as overstocked inventory and product recycling, eventually falling into the dilemma of "entering the market by following trends and leaving with losses".
Located in the Yanqi Basin, Xinjiang, Tiansai Winery began releasing zodiac wines in 2012, the first grape harvest year after its establishment. Its first zodiac wine was launched for the Year of the Snake in 2013. Up to now, it has continuously launched zodiac wines for 14 consecutive years, completing the first full 12-year zodiac cycle in 2024 and initiating the second zodiac series in 2025. At present, Tiansai's zodiac wine series has become a well-deserved benchmark for domestic zodiac wines, successfully transforming a short-term zodiac IP into a high-quality long-term asset that cannot be ignored in Tiansai's entire brand portfolio.
This paper focuses on the three core successful experiences of Tiansai's zodiac wine development, sorting out its replicable practical logic, hoping to provide useful references for the long-term development of localized zodiac IP for domestic wineries trapped in the trend-following dilemma.
First of all, Tiansai determined to build an independent zodiac wine series from the very beginning of the winery's establishment. Different from the perfunctory attitude and short-term perspective of most wineries that "launch products temporarily before the Spring Festival and shelve them immediately after the festival", Tiansai has incorporated zodiac wine into the overall brand development strategy since the launch of its first product in 2013, clarifying it as an independent product line for long-term development, rather than a festive accessory that only follows trends to make a quick profit. Based on this long-termist strategic positioning, over the past 14 years, no matter how the market environment fluctuates, Tiansai has always adhered to the annual release rhythm of zodiac wines without interruption, gradually forming the market expectation of "looking for Tiansai zodiac wines during the Spring Festival" with practical actions.
This long-term persistence not only deeply binds the zodiac wine series with the Tiansai brand, forming a highly recognizable brand memory point, but also accumulates profound user word-of-mouth through years of precipitation, effectively helping Tiansai's zodiac IP get rid of the short-term dilemma of "disappearing after the festival", steadily transforming short-term traffic into long-term assets, and laying a solid foundation for subsequent quality upgrading and cultural in-depth exploration of zodiac wines.
Secondly, Tiansai's zodiac wines adhere to strict quality standards and have rejected "re-labeled wines" from the very beginning. This clear awareness of quality and regional characteristics effectively solves the pain point of domestic zodiac wines that "value packaging over quality", and finally wins high market recognition. In the first round of zodiac wine series from 2013 to 2024, Tiansai adhered to the principles of "no re-labeling, no blending of aged wine, and guaranteed freshness", launching a zodiac gift box set containing one red wine and one white wine at the turn of each year. All raw materials for zodiac wines are taken from fresh grapes harvested in the winery's vineyard in the current year, and produced with a special non-oak-barrel process to create fresh-style wines with a refreshing, clean and easy-to-drink taste. This not only highlights the regional terroir characteristics, but also perfectly adapts to the drinking scenarios of family gatherings and friends' casual get-togethers during the Spring Festival, which is completely different from the perfunctory practice of some domestic brands that re-label aged wines as zodiac wines.
After launching the second round of the zodiac series in 2025, Tiansai further upgraded its products on the basis of consistent quality. In addition to continuing to launch the two-bottle set of fresh zodiac wines made from the current year's grapes, it added a 1500ml single-bottle dry red zodiac wine gift box. This zodiac wine is made from high-quality wine that has been aged in oak barrels for more than one year and stored in tanks for more than five years. Compared with traditional zodiac wines, this wine has a more complex and delicate taste and stronger aging potential, which can meet consumers' demand for collecting high-end zodiac-themed wines for a long time. This single-bottle zodiac gift box is limited to 3,000 sets per year, and each set is equipped with an independent gift box and a limited collection certificate. It has received enthusiastic market response since its launch, with sales volume reaching more than 85% of the original production volume in both years, and the excellent market performance fully confirms consumers' recognition of its quality.
Finally, the cultural connotation expression of Tiansai's zodiac wines has got rid of the superficial appropriation of zodiac symbols from the very beginning. By deeply exploring cultural connotations, Tiansai's zodiac wines fully convey the details of Chinese emotional expression. In sharp contrast to most wineries that change designers every year, resulting in messy styles and uneven quality of zodiac wine labels, Tiansai chose a long-term and stable designer. Since the launch of its first zodiac wine in 2013, Tiansai has maintained a continuous cooperation with Zhang Xu, who graduated from the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts (now the Academy of Arts and Design, Tsinghua University) and led the design of the China Pavilion at the 2008 Zaragoza World Expo in Spain.
Except for the dry white wine label for the Year of the Dragon in 2024, which was created by Xue Zheng, all other zodiac wine labels in different years were designed by Zhang Xu. This effectively ensures the unified design language, stable aesthetic standard and consistent cultural expression of Tiansai's zodiac wine labels, forming a unique recognizable, continuable and collectible IP visual system that is highly sought after by the market and professionally recognized. This zodiac series of wine labels won the "Annual Best Product Design Award" issued by RVF (La Revue du Vin de France) China Excellent Wine Selection in 2015, which is one of the most internationally credible design awards in the Chinese wine industry.
For example, 2016, the Year of the Monkey, was the year when Tiansai Winery's annual sales exceeded 300,000 bottles for the first time. To express gratitude to consumers, the zodiac wine label was named "Gratitude".
2017, the Year of the Rooster, was the year when China fully implemented the universal two-child policy. The theme of the zodiac wine label was determined as "Family Reunion", using the combination of a rooster, a hen and two chicks to visualize the Chinese-style emotion of family reunion, auspiciousness and happiness.
2018, the Year of the Dog, was the commercialization year of AI. The wine label uses the image of a dog to carry the blessing of love. The Chinese pinyin of "love" is "AI", which is also the abbreviation of Artificial Intelligence, thus extending to the deeper theme of "Love (AI) the Future", emphasizing the value of love for the future while also showing the close connection between artificial intelligence and human life in the future.
2021, the Year of the Ox, marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. The theme of the zodiac wine was named "Ox Century", and 18 major events since the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Party were displayed on the wine label. That year was also a year with severe COVID-19 pandemic, and the core visual image of the wine label was an ox wearing a mask.
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Throughout Tiansai's zodiac wine labels, there are many such ingenious design ideas and cultural highlights. It is precisely this in-depth exploration of cultural connotations that makes each bottle of Tiansai's zodiac wine have both cultural heritage and visual texture, thus becoming a powerful carrier for emotional and cultural expression.
After 14 years of long-term persistence, the annual sales revenue of Tiansai's zodiac wines has increased from more than 400,000 yuan in the early stage to more than 2 million yuan today, with steadily improving market recognition and reputation. Now, zodiac wine has become an indispensable part of Tiansai's brand portfolio. The stones from other hills can serve to polish one's jade. It is hoped that Tiansai's successful practice can provide useful inspiration for domestic wineries that are seeking to break through the dilemma of zodiac IP development.
Reference
Chang, X. (2023). Research on the competitive strategy of Xinjiang Tiansai Winery Co., Ltd. (Master's dissertation, Xinjiang University).
Han, L. (2022). Research on wine utensil design based on local characteristic elements of producing areas (Master's dissertation, Xinjiang Arts University).
Miao, L., & Xiao, Y. (2025). Research on the packaging design of Tiansai Winery's zodiac wine with cultural confidence integrated into local elements. China Packaging, 45(09), 72-79.
Qu, F. (2017). Standards matter — Exclusive interview with Chen Lizhong, owner of Xinjiang Tiansai Winery. Investment & Cooperation, (11), 80-85.
Author's Bibliography
PhD in Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Master of Tourism and Hotel Management, School of Business Administration, Sun Yat-sen University. She holds an associate senior professional title, is a senior dual-qualified teacher, and was selected into the "Ten Thousand Tourism Talents" Program initiated by the former China National Tourism Administration.
With 20 years of frontline teaching experience in vocational education for the High-Star Hotel Operation and Management specialty, and over 15 years of dedication to wine vocational education and professional training, Dr. Xia has obtained multiple internationally recognized professional wine certifications, including the WSET Level 3 Advanced Award in Wines (UK) and the ISG Advanced Sommelier Qualification (USA). She has led and participated in nearly 10 national and provincial research projects, and was awarded the Second Prize of the National Teaching Achievement Award. Her academic publications include 1 officially published academic monograph and 2 textbooks, and she also owns 1 industrial design patent and 2 computer software copyrights. She has been invited to deliver keynote speeches at industry events on multiple occasions, and has served as a judge and executive director for major competitions in the wine and beverage industry.