China's largest bank has launched the country's first wine trust project, in a move that echoes recent enthusiasm in the West for investing in such alternative assets, according to the Xinhua news agency.

The trust was initiated by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, as well as China National Cereals, Oil & Foodstuffs Corp and Zhonghai Trust Co. The first phase of the project will see an investment of up to 98 million yuan put into the project.

"So far, the project has been more than double oversubscribed," Ma Xutian, deputy general manager of the financial market department of the ICBC, was quoted as saying, adding that the product now only targets ICBC's private banking customers and enterprise customers.

Different from other wealth management products, the unit of the wine trust is measured by the "barrel," with each barrel containing 300 bottles of wine. Each investor is limited to buying a maximum of two barrels of wine.

The period for the investment is 18-month, with the annualised investment return hovering around 8 per cent.

Industry statistics show that in the last 20 years, fine wine has outperformed a number of equity and fixed income indices including the FTSE 100. For long-term investors, a well chosen and balanced wine portfolio should provide returns of 10 to 12 per cent per annum.