The Chinese have earned a reputation for producing cheap copies of well-known and upmarket products from iPhones to Bentleys.

Now, the nation is developing its own full bodied reds in a move that will send a shiver down the spine of the French.

Tesco is to start selling red wine from China, which is actually second only to Spain in terms of the area of land covered by its vineyards.

The first oriental wine to reach Tesco’s British supermarkets is Chateau Changyu Moser XV Cabernet Sauvignon 2015.

And this is no cheap copy, for the wine, which sells for £7 a bottle, is described as a ‘smooth, full-bodied wine’ that is cross between a classic French bordeaux and a fruity Australian wine.

Sainsbury’s has also been selling Changyu Noble Dragon, which is described as a ‘fruity and floral’ red for £8, and plans to add more, including a German-style reisling.

The idea of importing wine from China may appear a little hard to swallow, however 30 years ago it would have been odd to buy wine from South America.

Changyu, the Chinese company behind the wine sold in Tesco, is deadly serious about putting wine from the Far East on tables across the world.

The Chinese have not entered the international wine market without any knowledge or expertise. In fact, Changyu has been producing wine since 1892.

The company has embarked of a massive expansion plan which has involved spending more than £700million on a vast wine city with its own picture postcard re-creations of French chateaux, which were built with the help of designers from Disney.

The Chateau Changyu Moser XV estate claims to be one of the world’s biggest wine producers as home to 100 winemakers who make 150 million bottles a year.

The wine sold by Tesco is produced in the region of Ningxia in northern China, which has a warm and dry climate and boasts an average of 3,000 hours of sunshine hours a year ¬ 800 hours more than Bordeaux.

Tesco’s master of wine James Davis forecast China would soon be a powerful player in the wine world and said this launch could represent its first major push in the UK.

‘China is one of the world’s biggest consumers of wine, drinking almost two billion bottles of red wine each year. and now they are one of the largest wine¬producing countries in the world, ahead of the more traditional regions of Chile and New Zealand,’ he told The Grocer.

‘At a great introductory offer of £7, this wine offers customers an opportunity to discover a unique but quality wine at an affordable price.

‘This Chinese wine is very food¬friendly and works well with a variety of dishes ¬ they are also a great talking point at the dinner table.’ .

At the company’s Wine City, tourists will soon be able to dine in the two gothic châteaux and will be able to inspect a production line with a daily capacity of 2.1m bottles.

At the same time as boosting wine production in China, its wine companies are spending millions buying up vineyards around the world.

Changyu is in the process of purchasing vineyards in Australia and Chile. China’s third-biggest winemaker, Weilong, purchased three vineyards in Australia last year.