China introduces regulation system for quality wine
The Chinese wine industry has taken its first steps towards implementing an official regulation system for its quality wine, with sixteen wineries set to be granted an ‘estate wine’ trademark.
This is part of the government’s attempts to set down official quality standards for those winemakers producing wine from their own vineyards. A professional trade body set up by China Alcoholic Drinks Association (CADA) has approved a first batch of 16 wineries from Ningxia, Heibe, Xinjiang and Beijing to carry the quality mark, after a number of tasting sessions and audits. These wine producers are now at the final stage of the process and are likely to be approved to carry the designated ‘estate wine’ as from next month.
To qualify for the trademark producers must have full control over their vineyards, and produce and bottle their wine on site. These estate wines will have a yield limit of 1000kg of grapes per mu (around 94 – 115 hectolitres per hectare, depending on white or red wines,) according to CAD.
This upper limit on yields is much higher than that of top wine producing regions in the world, including Burgundy and Bordeaux. But the yield limit actually serves more as a wider national standard, according to Chinese wine expert Professor Li Demei. Most quality Chinese wine regions have a much lower yield than the limit.
China has to date issued several geographical indication (GI) marks to domestic wine producing regions, including Helan Mountain in the east of Ningxia. Unlike the more rigorous EU appellation regulations, the Chinese GI laws has “had little actual effect in the market because it is far less forceful than the trademark law,” Li Demei told Decanter.
Other criteria include the need for winemakers to produce in excess of 10,00 bottles of wine a year, and that the vineyards must be at least three years old before grapes are produced for wine production.
CADA hopes that by encouraging quality producers to apply for the trademark, the reputation of Chinese estate wine producers in domestic and overseas markets will be protected.