Chinese White Wine



Brief History of Chinese Wine

Evidence shows that it was in HAN dynasty (206 B.C.) that ancient Chinese began to grow grapes and make wines.

Wine was firstly recorded in the book of “SHI JI” (which means historic record) written by Si Maqian. 138 B.C. the emperor sent Zhangqian to Western Regions for a diplomatic mission; he was surprised to see people there make wine from grapes and rich people stocked wines. Because Western Regions is part of ancient China, this record shows that people in HAN dynasty had learned how to grow grapes and make wine from our neighbouring countries. After Zhangqian came back from West Regions, he introduced grape growing and winemaking skills to the central China. Wine soon became precious products for up class people. There is an interesting story in HAN dynasty which tells how Meng Boliang, a rich person was given a position of provincial governor by bribing a minister with a bottle of wine.

TANG dynasty is a golden age of winemaking history, because winemaking skills were known by ordinary people at this time. Many poems were written by famous poets to praise wines.

Large quantities of wine products were sold on the market in YUAN dynasty. “MARCO POLO TRAVELOGUE” said that there were many vineyards in Taiyuan of Shanxi province. People made a lot of wines and sent them to different places to sell. The rulers of YUAN dynasty loved wines and they ordered that wines must be used for sacrifice ceremony. Good vineyards were built in Taiyuan of Shanxi and Nanjing of Jiangsu. Some wine cellars were built in imperial palace.

On the left side WesternTaste.com provides a selection of Chinese wine to taste from.

For more information about MouTai and its history go to www.westerntaste.com/chinesewine.htm




Regards from Beijing, China - Enjoy!


Managing Director / Founder
Alexander Yü