Yantai: Cradle of Modern Chinese Wine

Yantai, a coastal city in China’s eastern Shandong Province has been dubbed the modern cradle of Chinese wine, in part due to a historical anecdote. On a summer evening in 1871, Zhang Bishi, a successful Chinese businessman then living in Indonesia, attended a cocktail party hosted by the French consul in Jakarta. Someone related the story that when an Anglo-French Allied Army occupied Yantai in 1860, they found wild grapes covering the mountains. The soldiers harvested some grapes and brewed a wine, which they claimed was so tasty that they considered remaining there even after the war to start a winery.

After hearing this tale, Zhang, a savvy businessman, imagined business opportunities, and upon returning to China, he conducted an investigational tour of Yantai. Situated along the northern coast of the Shandong Peninsula, at the same latitude as Bordeaux and Sicily, Yantai faces the ocean and is protected by mountains. It features a continental monsoon climate typical to warm temperate zones, characterized by abundant rainfall and plentiful sunlight, which provide favorable conditions for growing grapes. In 1892, Zhang invested considerable money to purchase two barren Yantai mountains, hire 2,000 workers, construct a brewery, and open 80 hectares of vineyards. This marked the beginning of today’s Changyu Wine Group, China’s oldest modern wine brewing enterprise. After more than a century of expansion, the Yantai brewery now includes over 10,000 hectares of vineyards that produce several wine varieties such as Cabernet Gernishet, Syrah, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Chardonnay.

In recent years, Changyu developed its own chateau wine. The Chateau Changyu AFIP Gloval in Beijing’s Miyun District features more than 30 European-style building complexes including the country’s first super-five-star-rated wine-featured hotel and presidential villas. All of the buildings in the area are designed to resemble typical European castles, both inside and out, including curtains, stairway handrails, and furnishings.

Because of the general lack of knowledge of chateau wine amongst the majority of the Chinese population, Changyu AFIP Global developed three innovative functions in addition to its winemaking to help spread wine culture: theme tourism, wine-tasting training, and leisure holidays. At Chateau Changyu, visitors can pay 100 yuan admission, and a guide will take them through Changyu Wine Museum, the brewing workshop, and the underground cellar.

At the DIY Workshop, tourists can learn about crafting oak casks, bottle corking, and even brew wine themselves with a customized label that can be personalized with photos. “Such personal experiences can help enhance visitors’ understanding of wine culture,” explains Manager Liu of Chateau Changyu.

Businesses such as Chateau Changyu have earned considerable attention from the domestic market. Vinexpo Asie statistics show that the annual growth of Chinese wine consumption was around 7 percent between 2002 and 2006, and rose to 13 percent after 2006. Ma Lin, a senior wine industry expert in charge of CAFA Formations Sommelier School China Office, adds that although the Chinese red wine market has grown by leaps and bounds in recent years, there is still a glaring lack of indigenous Chinese products and consumption habits.

“The Chinese wine industry is new,” continues Ma, “like a child compared to mature wine-producing countries like France. But I believe this child has an abundance of potential and bright prospects for the future.”