Ningxia forges ahead with growing ambition

Shandong province is recognized as China's traditional region for the wine industry. Last year, the province produced 292,300 tons of wine compared to Ningxia's 190,000 tons. But quality not quantity is Ningxia's goal.

"We have never emphasized our wine production," Hao Linhai, the head official in charge of the Ningxia wine region, said. "We actually want the market to be impressed by the quality of our wines. We want a big wine industry-composed of smaller-scale wineries."

Shandong is home to Changyu Pioneer Wine Company, the oldest producer in the country. But the region mainly concentrates on "factory wines", using grapes collected from other parts of the country. Ningxia tends to focus on "boutique estate wines".

"Zhang Bishi, founder of Changyu, made a great contribution to China's wine industry when he started the company more than a century," Hao said.

"He translated the names of the different varieties of grapes such as Cabernet Sauvignon into beautiful Chinese," Hao added.

Vine varieties include Cabernet-Sauvignon, Syrah, Merlot and Chardonnay, which are grown in Ningxia, and Sichuan and Hebei provinces.

"These are quite dry areas where there is little competition with other crops," Aurand, of the OIV, told Reuters.

Despite the wine industry's rapid expansion in China, the country's production figures still trail the world's major producers, such as France, Italy and Spain.