Zhang Bishi (fourth from the right, front row) led the Chinese delegation at the Panama-Pacific World Expo in San Francisco in 1915.
The late 19th century was eventful for the wine world. Brothers Jaime and Miguel Torres Vendrell founded Bodegas Torres in Spain in 1870, and Ridge Vineyards planted its first vines on Monte Bello in California in 1892. Meanwhile, the phylloxera crisis was slowly coming to an end in Europe. In the Far East, entrepreneur Zhang Bishi built China’s first modern winery in 1892. When aged 17, he had travelled to Southeast Asia and built a fortune in land reclamation, shipping and mining which, at its peak, was said to be greater than the total income of the then Qing government.
Zhang encountered grape wine for the first time in 1871 at the French Consulate in Batavia (Jakarta), Indonesia, and was inspired. After extensive research, he chose Yantai, in the Shandong Peninsula, where wild grapes flourish along China’s eastern coast, to establish his own wine estate. It took Zhang three attempts to find a winemaker for his winery, which he named Changyu, meaning ‘wealth and thriving success’. The first candidate, an Englishman, died during the long voyage; the second, from the Netherlands, was dismissed after two years due to incompetence.
Finally, Baron M von Babo, Vice-Consul of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Yantai, and a member of a winemaking family, recommended himself. The first Changyu wines and brandies were made under his watch.
Changyu’s first general manager Zhang Chengqing (standing, left) toasts China’s first brandy with winemaker Baron M von Babo (standing, right).
A trailblazer in wine
Despite its creation during a turbulent era in Chinese history, Changyu is the nation’s vanguard in viticulture and oenology. In its early years, the winery imported 124 Vitis vinifera varieties from Europe and grafted them onto the indigenous Vitis amurensis (locally known as ‘mountain grapes’) so they could survive the local climate. Changyu was also the first to come up with the now widely used Chinese names of many international varieties. At the winery, Changyu sourced oak staves from Austria and Italy for barrel production and imported wine presses and pot stills from Europe. Zhang also created China’s first glass-bottle factory, boasting an annual capacity of one million bottles, using equipment bought from France, Germany and Japan.
In 1912, the Qing Dynasty fell, ending 2,000 years of imperial rule in China. As the nation grappled with creating a new social order, in 1915, Zhang, then aged 74, led a delegation of Chinese industry leaders to the Panama-Pacific World Expo in San Francisco, California. Chinese wines and brandies were showcased on the international stage for the first time – with encouraging results. Changyu’s Chefoo Red Rose (made from an indigenous red grape), along with a dry Riesling, Koya Brandy and a Gewürztraminer-based Vermouth, each received a Grand Prize, the Expo’s top accolade.
A national icon
In the 1930s, wines from Changyu were fashionable among social elites in Shanghai – a Western-occupied city briefly shielded from the wars and turmoil affecting the rest of China. Changyu released China’s first dry red wine made with Cabernet Gernischt in 1931. Xu Wangzhi, then managing director of Changyu, named the wine Jie Bai Na (English name: Noble Dragon). Translated, the poetic name implies that the brand is keeping an open mind by fusing elements of Chinese and Western culture, just as the ocean embraces all. Noble Dragon remains one of Changyu’s flagship wines to this day.
In October 1949, with the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Changyu wines were served at the national banquet celebrating the victory of the Chinese people after more than a decade of war. In 1954, Premier Zhou Enlai gifted Changyu brandies to foreign leaders at the Geneva Conference, a historic event that significantly influenced the post-war international…
Source : https://www.decanter.com.master.public.keystone-prod-eks-euw1.futureplc.engineering/sponsored/changyu-chinas-century-old-wine-legend-539787/
