Vineyards pour billions into chateaus

Competition

Count John U. Salvi, the honorary president of the chateau, said that wines made from the grapes are competitive with New World wines, such as those from Australia and the United States.

The Xinjiang chateau is the company's fourth. The management of Changyu was inspired to build China's first chateau in Yantai in 2002 after an analysis of the wine industry in France.

There, more than 80,000 wine chateaus play an important role in France's fame as a global wine player, according to Li Jiming, Changyu's chief engineer.

Today, Changyu has a wide assortment of vineyards on 20,000 hectares of land in six regions: Shandong, Shaanxi and Liaoning provinces, the Xinjiang Uygur and Ningxia Hui autonomous regions, and around Beijing.

There will be six chateaus in six areas, with four already operating.

Chateau Changyu Moser XV in Ningxia and Chateau Changyu Reina in Shaanxi province are scheduled to open to the public in the coming months.

"Wines made in the six chateaus cater to a wide range of consumers. Some can be served at home, while others are suited to national banquets, and some exquisite varieties can be collected as an investment," Li said.

"Chateau wines are Changyu's most competitive products, boasting annual average sales growth of 45 percent since 2008," said Sun Jian, deputy general manager of Changyu.

Li, the engineer, said Changyu has chosen to join forces with the world's most prestigious chateaus to build its chateaus in China. The idea is to ensure premium quality.

Chateau Changyu-Castel was built in 2002 in cooperation with the Castel Group of Bordeaux, France.

Five years later, with the participation of vintners from France, the US, Italy and Portugal, Changyu spent 500 million yuan to establish Chateau Changyu AFIP Global in Beijing's Miyun county.

The same year, an ice wine chateau in Liaoning province was built in cooperation with Aurora Icewine Co Ltd, the biggest ice wine company in Canada.

Chateau Changyu Moser XV has been jointly developed by Changyu and the Austrian winemaker Lenz Moser, whose family has run wineries for 15 generations.

Changyu chateau wines have been winning over European consumers. Last year, Changyu Jiebaina was put on the shelves of Waitrose Ltd outlets in the United Kingdom.

Although Waitrose didn't continue to sell the wine after the trial, a spokesman said that the Changyu Jiebaina was selling out "quickly, much faster than we expected, and we were thrilled with our customers' reaction to this new and unknown wine", according to wine publication Decanter.

This March, Berry Brothers & Rudd, Britain's oldest wine merchant, announced it will permanently stock four Changyu wines: Chateau Changyu Moser XV and three ice wines.

Changyu plans to expand its chateau portfolio by building a "wine city" in its home base of Yantai in 2016, where it will invest about 6 billion yuan.

Besides two wine and brandy chateaus, the "wine city" has a research institute, wine production center, a vineyard, a European-style village and an international wine trading center.