China Sprouting Homegrown Wine Culture
China Sprouting Homegrown Wine Culture
Dec 26, 2012 6
(WWD) - The tastefully crafted, muted brick multibuilding winery — surrounded by several fields of grapevines carefully selected from the best wine-growing regions of France, then transplanted here to northern China — sits just below the Great Wall, an hour north of Beijing, in the dusty terrain of Hebei. Inside the vineyard and winery are the best grapes available, top-end equipment imported from France and Italy, and aged oak barrels from the U.S., signed by the Chinese wine drinkers who have paid hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars for caskets of a drink unheard of outside the region. But one might pass by it on the expressway without noticing. Huailai Amethyst Manor produces hundreds of thousands of bottles of wine each year, according to its marketing directors, mainly sold under the label Danbian, a wine that seems to be available only in China.
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