Decanter World Wine AwardsChangyu to build Shandong 'City of Wine'
- Wednesday 4 July 2012
'City of Wine', Yantai
The project, according to ChinaDaily.com, will be situated in the city of Yantai, will cover an area of 413ha and will cost an estimated 6bn yuan (US$942.6m).
The centre will house a research institute and wine production centre, as well as vineyards, an ‘international wine trading centre’, and a ‘European-style village’.
There will also be ‘two high-end wine and brandy chateaux’, the website reported, making it one of the world’s largest wine and brandy production plants.
The centre is expected to be completed by 2016.
Changyu, according to its website, was ranked the 10th largest wine producer in the world in 2007, with sales of US$695m.
It is no stranger to audacious building projects: in 2002 it went into partnership with French wine company Castel to build the enormous Chateau Changyu-Castel in Shandong, and has followed that with six other chateaux.
Changyu has partnerships with producers in several countries, including France, Portugal, Italy, New Zealand and Canada.
In 2006, Changyu built what was expected to be one of the largest icewine estates in the world in the town of Beidianzi in Huanren, in the northeastern province of Liaoning. In terms of climate, altitude, topography and soil type, Beidianzi was found to be almost identical to the great icewine estates of Canada.
Its Château Changyu Vidal Ice Wine 2008 won Silver at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2011.
Have your say!
Roberto
July 09 04:48
The problem is their mentality: if it's not French, it's not interesting...
Michael - Li Mai
July 06 04:37
Brett, I agree with your comment about inappropriate French style wineries. As an Architect I find it sad. There are some great Chinese style buildings, and also some terrible looking ones. Some of the modern architecture in Beijing, Shanghai and Guanzhou is stunning (International style). Unfortunately the rush to embrace all things western often brings with it inappropriateness. Lets hope the wine industry excels.
Brett Thorburn
July 05 11:22
Wouldnt it be nice if Chinese winerys integrated traditional Chinese architecture rather than these tacky French chateaux mock ups?? Why try to be something there not?? If it where Chinese architecture it would be something special, but these concepts just look plain ugly in the Chinese landscape!!