Wine in China
Encyclopedia
Grape
A grape is a non-climacteric fruit, specifically a berry, that grows on the perennial and deciduous woody vines of the genus Vitis. Grapes can be eaten raw or they can be used for making jam, juice, jelly, vinegar, wine, grape seed extracts, raisins, molasses and grape seed oil. Grapes are also...
wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
s that are produced in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Grape wine has a long history in China, along with other Chinese alcoholic beverages.
Beginning in 1980, French
French wine
French wine is produced in several regions throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France has the world's second-largest total vineyard area, behind Spain, and is in the position of being the world's largest wine producer...
and other Western wines began to rise in prominence in the Chinese market, both in mainland China
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...
and Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
. French-taught Chinese winemakers introduced wine to a market dominated mostly by beer, and have quickly expanded in scale such that China, with its immense population, is set to become the largest wine market in the world.
History
The history of Chinese grape wine has been dated back more than 4,600 years. In 1995, a joint Sino-USA archeology team including archaeologists from the Archeology Research Institute of Shandong UniversityShandong University
Shandong University is a public comprehensive university in Shandong, China. It is one of the largest universities in China by student population and is supported directly by the national government....
and American archaeologists under the leadership of Professor Fang Hui (方辉) investigated the two archaeological sites 20 km to the northeast of Rizhao
Rizhao
Rizhao is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Shandong province, People's Republic of China. It is situated on the coastline along the Yellow Sea, borders Qingdao to the northeast, Weifang to the north, Linyi to the west and southwest, and faces Korea and Japan across the Yellow Sea to the east...
, and discovered the remnants of a variety of alcoholic beverage
Alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
s including grape wine
Wine
Wine is an alcoholic beverage, made of fermented fruit juice, usually from grapes. The natural chemical balance of grapes lets them ferment without the addition of sugars, acids, enzymes, or other nutrients. Grape wine is produced by fermenting crushed grapes using various types of yeast. Yeast...
, rice wine, mead
Mead
Mead , also called honey wine, is an alcoholic beverage that is produced by fermenting a solution of honey and water. It may also be produced by fermenting a solution of water and honey with grain mash, which is strained immediately after fermentation...
, and several mixed beverages of these wines. Out of more than two hundred ceramic pots discovered at the sites, seven were specifically used for grape wine. Remnants of grape seeds were also discovered.
If grape wine consumption was once common in Bronze Age China, however, it died out completely in ancient times, and was replaced by consumption of a range of traditional Chinese alcoholic beverages made from sorghum, millet, rice, and fruits such as lychee
Lychee
The lychee is the sole member of the genus Litchi in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. It is a tropical and subtropical fruit tree native to Southern China and Southeast Asia, and now cultivated in many parts of the world...
or Asian plum. It was not until the Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...
that the ancient Chinese became reacquainted with the consumption of grape wines (via Central Asia), and not until the Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...
that consumption of these wines became common.
Modern Chinese wine
Chinese economic reform
The Chinese economic reform refers to the program of economic reforms called "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" in the People's Republic of China that were started in December 1978 by reformists within the Communist Party of China led by Deng Xiaoping.China had one of the world's largest...
, Rémy Martin
Rémy Martin
Rémy Martin is a brand selling cognac , specialist of the Cognac Fine Champagne originally produced by Rémy Martin, a French winemaker, who founded the company in 1724...
ventured into China to set up the first joint-venture enterprise in Tianjin
Tianjin
' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government...
: the Dynasty (Wang Chao, 王朝) Wine Ltd., which was also the second joint-venture enterprise in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. Over the years, the company developed over 90 brands of alcoholic beverage
Alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...
s, and its products won numerous awards both domestically and abroad.
However, most of its products were exported abroad in the first two decades due to the low income of the local population, and it was not until after the year 2000 when the economic boom finally provided the domestic population with sufficient disposable income
Luxury good
Luxury goods are products and services that are not considered essential and associated with affluence.The concept of luxury has been present in various forms since the beginning of civilization. Its role was just as important in ancient western and eastern empires as it is in modern societies...
to support the domestic market; this relatively recent occurrence coincided with the increased popularity of French wine in China. Other companies, including China Great Wall Wine Co., Ltd
Great Wall Wine
China Great Wall Wine Co., Ltd. is a producer of grape wine based in Hebei province, China. By production volume, Great Wall is China's largest wine enterprise, producing 50,000 tons in 2010.-Overview:...
, Suntime and Changyu, have also risen in prominence, and by 2005, 90% of grape wine produced was consumed locally.
Also, as globalization has brought China onto the international economic scene, so too has its winemaking industry come onto the international wine scene. China has a long tradition of the fermentation and distillation of Chinese wine
Chinese wine
Jiu is the Chinese word that refers to all alcoholic beverages. This word has often been mistranslated into English as "wine"; the meaning is closer to "alcoholic beverage" or "liquor"...
, including all alcoholic beverages and not necessarily grape wine, but is one of the most recent participants in the globalization of wine
Globalization of wine
"Globalization is the expansion of brands across nations and into other continents. In food and wine it refers to the whole problem of making the product global. The primary issue is scaling production while reducing the costs of goods with processes. In marketing it refers to wearing the mantle of...
that started years ago in Paris, when several countries such as Canada realized that they may be able to produce wines as good as most French wine
French wine
French wine is produced in several regions throughout France, in quantities between 50 and 60 million hectolitres per year, or 7–8 billion bottles. France has the world's second-largest total vineyard area, behind Spain, and is in the position of being the world's largest wine producer...
.
Quite recently, Chinese grape wine has begun appearing on shelves in California and in Western Canada. While some critics have treated these wines with the same type of disregard with which Chilean and Australian wines were once treated, others have recognized a new frontier with the potential to yield some interesting finds. Others have simply taken notice that China is producing drinkable table wines comparable to wines from other countries. Among the latest developments is the production of organic wine
Organic wine
The most widely accepted definition of Organic wine is wine made from grapes grown in accordance with principles of organic farming, which typically excludes the use of artificial chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides....
in Inner Mongolia.
Wine in Xinjiang
China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region have an ancient history of viticulture going back to around the 4th Century BC, when GreekAncient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
settlers brought the vine and more advanced irrigation techniques. The area around Turfan was, and still is, particularly noted for its grape production, and production of grape wines is mentioned in the historical record as well; Marco Polo
Marco Polo
Marco Polo was a Venetian merchant traveler from the Venetian Republic whose travels are recorded in Il Milione, a book which did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China. He learned about trading whilst his father and uncle, Niccolò and Maffeo, travelled through Asia and apparently...
mentioned that Carachoco (the name he used for Turfan) produced fine grape wines. The modern wine industry in Xinjiang is not connected to the traditional wine making culture. The wineries are instead patterned after French methods.
Market
The Chinese domestic market for wine is projected to become the largest in the world in a few decades, even though the current annual per capita consumption of wine in China is only 0.35 litres. In 2008, wine merchant Berry Brothers and RuddBerry Brothers and Rudd
Berry Bros. & Rudd is a wine and spirits merchant based in the United Kingdom. The company sells wine from around the world, including en primeur wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône and Italy. The company also sells a number of wines and spirits under its own label 'Berrys' Own Selection'...
predicted that within 50 years the quality of Chinese wine will rival that of Bordeaux. At the moment, a few large companies, such as Changyu Pioneer Wine, China Great Wall Wine Co., Ltd. and the Dynasty Wine Ltd., dominate the market. The total production of wine in 2004 was 370 thousand tons, a 15% increase from the previous year. Total market grew 58% between 1996 and 2001, and 68% between 2001 and 2006. Notable wine-producing regions include Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, Yantai
Yantai
Yantai is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Shandong province, People's Republic of China. Located on the southern coast of the Bohai Sea and the eastern coast of the Laizhou Bay, Yantai borders the cities of Qingdao and Weihai to the southwest and east respectively.The largest fishing...
, Zhangjiakou
Zhangjiakou
Zhangjiakou, also known also by several other names, is a prefecture-level city in northwestern Hebei province of North China, adjacent to Beijing to the southeast. Its administrative area has a population of 4.35 million, and covers...
in Hebei
Hebei
' is a province of the People's Republic of China in the North China region. Its one-character abbreviation is "" , named after Ji Province, a Han Dynasty province that included what is now southern Hebei...
, Yibin
Yibin
-Administrative divisions:-Economy:The city's industry focuses on electronics, food products, and power generation. It also produces paper, silk, and leather products...
in Sichuan
Sichuan
' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...
, Tonghua
Tonghua
-Economy:Traditionally, Tonghua occupied a railhub position in a region of China noted for trade in only three agricultural commodities. These were ginseng, marten furs and deer antler products. In the 1980s Tonghua had some success with a wine distillery producing sweet, sticky red wines that...
in Jilin
Jilin
Jilin , is a province of the People's Republic of China located in the northeastern part of the country. Jilin borders North Korea and Russia to the east, Heilongjiang to the north, Liaoning to the south, and Inner Mongolia to the west...
, Taiyuan
Taiyuan
Taiyuan is the capital and largest city of Shanxi province in North China. At the 2010 census, it had a total population of 4,201,591 inhabitants on 6959 km² whom 3,212,500 are urban on 1,460 km². The name of the city literally means "Great Plains", referring to the location where the Fen River...
in Shanxi
Shanxi
' is a province in Northern China. Its one-character abbreviation is "晋" , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
, and Ningxia
Ningxia
Ningxia, formerly transliterated as Ningsia, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Located in Northwest China, on the Loess Plateau, the Yellow River flows through this vast area of land. The Great Wall of China runs along its northeastern boundary...
. The largest producing region is Yantai-Penglai, with its more than 140 wineries producing 40% of China's wine production.
Statistics show that the main market for white wine is among females, who prefer it over beer
Beer
Beer is the world's most widely consumed andprobably oldest alcoholic beverage; it is the third most popular drink overall, after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of sugars, mainly derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat...
, still the main alcoholic beverage for most males; red wine has become a symbol of the elite and rich and is usually used as a table wine
Table wine
Table wine is a wine term with two different meanings: a wine style; and a quality level within wine classification.In the United States, table wine primarily designates a wine style - ordinary wine which is neither fortified nor sparkling....
. In 2005, 80% of vineyards produce red wine and 20% of vineyards produce white wine, while 90% of wine consumed as of 2007 is red wine.
See also
External links
- China Wines Information Website
- TeddyVine
- http://www.ice.gov.it/paesi/asia/cina/upload/174/Chinese%20wine%20report%202010.pdf
- Wine in China:The Wine Market in China