8 Facts You Didn’t Know About China Wine Country

We visited Ningxia, China during winter. Here we look out the window of a winery under construction as the winemaker describes his vision.

In March 2014 we visited Ningxia, China, a wine producing region that is growing at a rapid pace. Here are some interesting facts about this intriguing area.

Ningxia has about 58,000 acres of vineyards planted so far. Thats more than the 47,000 acres planted in Napa, California.
Unlike many other wine regions throughout the world, there is a very large number of women in power in Ningxia’s wine industry.
Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy (a French luxury brand) invested over $5 million dollars to start a joint-venture winery in Ningxia.
Ningxia is actually an autonomous region of China, meaning they have their own government and legislative rights. 2/3 of the population is Han (indigenous Chinese that makes up 92% of the population in China). The other 1/3 is Hui Chinese who are Muslims but who mostly do not practice Islam.
Because of the harsh cold of the winters in Ningxia, the vines must be buried under the ground for protection each year.
There are currently 100 wineries in Ningxia and they plan to expand to 1000 wineries in the next 10 years. That’s 100 new wineries per year for the next 10 years!
The first vineyard in Ningxia was planted in 1982.
The Chinese first made wine from grapes 4,600 years ago!

This story originally appeared on the Bliss Wine Imports Blog.

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