Changyu suffers production losses across its main wine regions

China’s oldest and largest wine producer, Changyu Pioneer Wine, suffered yield losses in several of its major winemaking regions across China last year, due to frost in winter and excessive rainfall during the growing season.

The news that production from its vineyard sites in Xinjiang, Ningxia, Beijing, Liaoning, Yantai and Shaanxi all declined last year is in tune with other reports which show that the country’s overall wine production dropped for the fourth time in 2016.

In northwestern Ningxia, where Changyu’s Moser XV Co winery is located, its production totalled around 40,000 tonnes, representing a 10%-15% drop compared with 2015, the winery told dbHK. The drop, according to Changyu, was mainly a result of frost and diseases in winter.

Changyu first started planting grapes in Ningxia in 2006 and has about 80,000 mu (5,333 hectares) vineyards across the region including vineyards in the eastern range of Helan Mountain, which is considered by many Chinese wine experts as a premium vine growing region.

In Beijing, where its winery Château Changyu Afip Global is based, its production dropped 8.5% year-on-year to 512 tonnes. The company said Beijing’s early snow introduced early frost and excessive rainfalls in growing season resulted in the cut.

Its production in Xinjiang in northwestern China was tallied at 66,000 tonnes while in China’s northeastern Liaoning province, where its ice wine is produced, its production failed to reach 200 tonnes, far smaller than its projected annual production of 1,000 tonnes as stated on its website.  

In its home base Yantai in China’s eastern Shandong province, where its famed Cabernet Gernisht-based ‘Noble Dragon’ wine is produced, its total wine production dipped in both wines made from purchased grapes and fruit from its own vineyards. The wine is said to be the “highest selling wine in the world”, according to China Daily, with 400 million bottles sold in 2015. 

Production from purchased grapes including Cabernet Gernischt, Cabernet Sauvignon and Trebbiano in 2016 dropped 3.4% to 14,502 tonnes, while the yields from its self-planted wine grapes of the same three varietals grew significantly, bringing its production to 7,534 tonnes, up from 2015’s 4,286 tonnes.

In Shaanxi province, home to its Château Rena, its wine production totalled 1,102 tonnes.