Fruit of the Vine
1 min readBelieve it or not, the land of bai jiu is fast becoming a force in the red wine industry.
Ningxia, Shandong and Shanxi are producing very good wines not only for export but to fill decanters here in China. Liaoning, with its large area of arable farmland has gotten into the market as well as by taking advantage of its long winter to produce a product called ice wine.
Ice wine is made by pressing the near frozen grapes which extracts only the sweetest juice making a very popular dessert wine. The vintner Changyu, just across the Bohai Sea fromLiaoning discovered that the climate in Liaoning was perfect to grow this product. The Liaoning government went to work by investing in local farmers to grow and harvest the grapes for purchase by local vintners running the many wineries popping up all over the province.
Red wine is fast becoming a major business in China with large brands like Changyu gaining world wide popularity and recognition. Changyu has even built a wine chateau andhotel in Shenyang for visitors to sample their product and learn about the industry. The retail sales of red wine in China is growing at over $6 billion, surpassing Japan who was once the largest consumer of red wine in Asia.
