Laurenz Moser, Austrian famed vintner gives his approval of Changyu's management of its grape planting areas.

Leading foreign winemakers have been coming in droves to China in recent years in an attempt to carve out a piece of one of the world's fastest-growing wine markets.

Meanwhile, domestic companies like Changyu Pioneer Wine Co Ltd, China's oldest and largest wine producer, are grabbing more global attention with unique oriental flavors.

"With 120 years of experience in viniculture and the wine business, Changyu has grown into one of the nation's top producers and can rival the world's best in grape planting, processing technology and scale," said Zhou Hongjiang, general manager of the company.

Based in Yantai, East China's Shandong province, the company is committed to promoting its competitive edge by maintaining innovation and continuously supplying new wine-making technologies.

Quality grapes

Changyu's effort to grow its own grapes for high-end wines began in 1892, when founder Zhang Bishi, an overseas Chinese from Indonesia, imported more than 120 types of young vines from Europe.

However, the exotic vines did not take to the local geographical conditions, and most of them failed to survive. To solve this problem, Zhang carried out numerous field trials and finally managed to cultivate a new variety of "cabernet gernischt" by grafting the imported vine with a kind of wild vine in northeast China.

With rich sugar content and high resistance to pests and diseases, this special type of grape peculiar to Yantai has proven to be a winner for the company and gotten widely international recognition.

Changyu Jiebaina, a type of dry red wine made from this grape, was created by the company in the 1931 and rated as one of the world's top 30 wine brands in 2008 Salon International de l'Alimentation held in France.

Since 2006, the Changyu Jiebaina has been exported to some 14 countries across the world, including Germany, Italy, and France. It is the first China-made wine that has really entered the European mainstream life and can be available in more than 3,000 supermarkets, shops, five-star hotels in Europe, and even the first-class cabins of Lufthansa German Airlines.

It is only one of the high-quality grapes Changyu has cultivated. In recent years, a total of 50 million yuan ($7.9 million) has been allocated to developing cabernet gernischt growing areas and eight new varieties have been cultivated.

In 1970s, Changyu developed two new varieties of grape - "Yan 73" and "Yan 74". They can be used to give the wine a natural red color because the color of their juice is six times that of the normal grape. They have been introduced by many overseas winemakers as a top option to color their wine.

Today, the company grows a wide assortment of grapes in the Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions, Shandong, Shaanxi, Liaoning provinces, and around Beijing on a total of 20,000 hectares of land, accounting for a quarter of China's grape-planting regions.

"We use varied modern techniques for grapes from different vineyards. Grapes from different regions have a different flavor, so they're used for various types of wine," said Li Jiming, Changyu's chief engineer with a doctor degree in viniculture.

The company also pays much attention to the sugar content of the grape. It elaborately selects the grape type and grows them in proper regions to make grapes have more sugar content.

"The average sugar content in grapes from vineyards in Xinjiang and Ningxia can reach more than 23 percent, a figure which is seldom seen even in Bordeaux, France's prominent wine producing region," said Cheng Guoli, Changyu's senior agronomist.

"Now, Changyu can control the sugar content of grape between 18 percent with 23 percent, which ensures the diversity of its products," Cheng said.

"Growers tend to sell their best grapes to us because our price is based on sugar content. That means the price for grapes that are rich in sugar is higher than the market standard," Li said.

"Fine wine is 70 percent dependent on good grapes and 30 percent on the winemaking process. Top-class grapes are the fundamental element of a top-class wine company," Li said, explaining why the company pays so much attention to planting grapes.

"To meet growing demand, we will continue to expand vineyards and aim to have the world's largest grape-growing area with an annually production of 400,000 tons of grape in five years," said Li.

Global stage

China is currently the world's fifth largest wine consumer after the United States, Italy, France and Germany, according to the 2012 China Wine Market Report released by International Wine and Spirit Research.

Last year saw wine consumption in China increase by 33.4 percent year on year to 156 million 9-liter cases containing 12 bottles per case.

The report also indicates that consumption is set to grow by 54.25 percent between 2011 and 2015. However, the annual per capita consumption of wine in China only stands at 1 liter, much lower compared with the 56 liters consumed by the French.

Such a huge potential of the wine market in China has attracted producers from Europe and the Americas. Statistics show there are more than 3,000 overseas wine brands at Chinese market, further diversifying the market.

Although there are stiff challenges from overseas brands, Chinese wine brands are now showing confidence as more and more made-in-China wines frequently stand out among overseas brands on the global stage.

One major force among these Chinese wine brands is Changyu, with brand value standing at $3.2 billion, up 77 percent over 2010, according to the report.

"The complicated wine market here offers us both challenges and opportunities. I believe we are capable of rivaling any other wine as we have sound terroir conditions, quality grapes, and competitive sales network," Zhou commented on the current complicated wine market.

Last year, Changyu gained 12.4 billion yuan from its total sales, generating tax of 3.4 billion yuan.

The company is listed at both A-share market and B-share market. Its A-share dominated branch company had revenue of 6.03 billion yuan last year, an increase of 20.96 percent over 2010. The branch company has given a total of 4.5 billion yuan worth of dividends since it is listed at A-share market in 2000.

"China's high-end wine market is expanding fast. We will spare no effort to look for more cooperation with overseas chateaus to provide quality wine produced in 17 major grape growing areas all over the world," said Zhou.

Now, the company has established 10 high-end chateaus across the world and its high-end wine has developed into brands competing with overseas wine. They are frequently served at international banquets and also selected as a State gift to world renowned elites including former American President Bill Clinton, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and financier Warren Buffett.

"With all these efforts, Changyu will be on track to play a vital role in the world's high-end wines market," he said.

Contact the writers at wangqian2@chinadaily.com.cn and

zhaoruixue@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/14/2012 page15)