Wines of Rest-of-World > South East Asia and India > Flashcards
South East Asia and India Flashcards
China
Wine producer for over 1000 years, only since the late 20th Century has western style wine been produced. Huge potential and rapid expansion, more than 300,000 tons of grapes grown every year. Only 1.1% exported, the local market consume the rest.
Four big brands dominate- Change, Great Wall, Dynasty and Great Dragon make up 60%. Winemaking has government backing as the focus of alcohol moves from spirits to wine.
High tax on imported wine recently reduced (now zero in Hong Kong), opening up the international market. Wealth and awareness of western culture particularly in big cities is causing rapid market growth however wine accounts for only 1.1% of the total alcohol consumed in China.
Japan
Japan’s unpredictable climate makes grape growing a challenge, small quantity due to trouble with ripening and grape health.
India
10% of the total grape production is for wine. Extremes in climate make quality grape growing difficult. Sula Vineyards in the Nashik Highlands produces well made Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Shiraz.
China- History
128BC: vine introduced after a mission to Iran during Emperor Wu.
Late 19th-Early 20th: foreigners set up wineries but mainly for the foreign communities
1978: China opened its doors to foreign investments incl. Pernod Ricard and Rémy Martin.
1986: first international grape varieties planted
Mid 90s: further opening to foreign companies -> further development
Now: huge potential as winemaking backed by government & rapid rise of westernised middle class in cities
China- Key Regions and Characteristics
Most winemaking regions north of the Yangtze river:
- North-west - Xinjiang Uygur – 18%
- Fast growing since the late 1990s
- Low natural rainfall but huge alpine water resources from the nearby Heavenly Mountains
- Coastal regions – Hebei, Shandong, Henan and Tianjing - 32%
- Same latitude as California and climate amenable to wine production w cool pacific breezes to moderate temperatures and humidity. Growing season usually wet
- Most vineyards set up on flat land w fertile soils w hi yields, over-cropping, poor drainage & ventilation
- Shandong: cooler climate inland region & the Dazashen w slopes have limestone free-draining soils
3. Liaoning -10%
4. North-east - Jilin – 2%
China- Grape Varieties
- Thousands of native grape varieties. Modern international varieties represent 47,000ha w reds dominating:
- Reds: Cabernet Sauvignon (40% of plantings), Merlot (10%) and Cabernet Franc (10%)
- Whites: Welschriesling/Riesling (40%), Chardonnay (20% and increasing)
China- Viticulture and Winemaking
- 450,000ha - #5 largest worldwide with most of the grapes for table grapes and raisins
- Grapes usually supplied to wineries by smallholders
- Vines grown ungrafted on traditional fan trellis system w dense foliage, excessive yields, heavy summer irrigation and early picking. No real organisation around spraying or harvest.
• High humidity levels (>85%) and canopy management encourage diseases include powdery mildew, downy
mildew, dead arm, white rot and bitter rot
• Some organic viticulture in Gansu
China- Production
- Only 1% of wine produced exported.
- Hong Kong now new fine wine world centre thanks to zero tax allowance.
- 4 brands dominate: 1. Changyu 2. Great Wall 3. Dynasty 4. Great Dragon
- Very low but fast-increasing domestic consumption w wine being only 1% of alcohol consumed in China
- 300-400 wineries w top 3 wineries produce 45% of domestic Chinese demand. Dynasty: 40m btls/yr
- Foreign investors include:
- Rémy Martin with a Muscat-influenced blend
- Pernod Ricard: Dragon Seal brand as a joint venture with Beijing Friendship winery
Japan- History
718AD: Buddhist missionaries believed to have planted vines at Katsunuma for their medicinal value
16th: 1st documented wines with the arrival of Portuguese missionaries but did not develop
- 1875: first attempt at commercial winemaking near Mount Fuji -> import of vinifera & American vines allowed
- 1990s: introduction of modern viticulture techniques and winemaking equipment
- Now: modest viticultural industry challenged by unpredictable climate; focus on table grape growing
Japan- Climate
Unpredictable monsoon climate w excess water & humidity
Japan- Key Regions and Characteristics
- Yamanashi, Nagano & Yamagata = 40% of vineyards
* Katsunuma district has better climatic conditions w lower rainfall, better drainage (via altitude) and sea breezes.
Japan- Grape Varieties
- Delaware, Kyoho, Koshu (table grapes & wine), Yamabudo (wild grape), Neo-Muscat, Kiyomi (for light reds)
- Some European varieties planted in Yamanashi and Nagano but overall less than 1% of vines planted.
Japan- Viticulture and Winemaking
- 19,000ha
- Vines grown on overhead wires or platforms to have bunches hang lower than the foliage & benefit from
circulating air. This tendone system is called tanazukuri. Some new plantings w European trellising e.g Lyre. - Low vine density and tendency to high yields tend to strip too much character from grapes to make strong wines
- Most grapes bought in from a large number of grape growers (avg holding
Japan- Production
- 230,000t of grapes with only 10% used for winemaking
- Wine production dominated by the industry giants e.g. Suntory, Sanraku with Manns wine (16m btls/yr),
Sapporo and Kyowa Hakko Kogyo.
India- History
- 4000BC: introduction of vines during the Indus civilisation
- 19th: Indian viticulture encouraged by British Empire but Phylloxera hit in the 1890s
- 1947: Independence with some states prohibiting alcohol consumption
- 1980s: renaissance of viticulture in India with establishment of Chateau Indage (84) and Grover (88)
- 2000s: improved economic conditions, liberal movement and a growing wine-drinking middle class
India- Climate
Monsoon climate w hot, humid summers. Temperatures vary from 8C to 45C. Rainfall around 1,500mm
India- Typography
Most vineyards planted in altitude from 200m in Karnataka up to 1,000m in Kashmir
India- Key Regions and Characteristics
Maharashtra state – Nasik and Sangli
- Home to Sula vineyards that grows quality Sauvignon blanc, Chenin blanc ad Shiraz
- Also home to Indage which grows international varieties too.
Other regions: Bangalore in Karnataka state and Himachal Pradesh
India- Grape Varieties
- Indigenuous grapes e.g. Arkavati are grown in small holdings for the local market
- Isabella, Muscat Hamburg and Perlette also widely grown – altogether 20% of plantings
- Thompson seedless represents half of the vineyard area.
India- Viticulture and Winemaking
- 60,000ha
- Vines trained on wire and bamboo with wide row spacing to retain soil water, prevent sunburn and maximise aeration of the vines (vs. diseases)
- Drip irrigation used -> yields tend to be high.
- In warmer climates e.g. Karnataka there are normally two harvests/year.
India- Production
- Only 10% of crop used for winemaking. Total production: 8m btls/yr
- Wine consumption fast increasing.
- Wine production mainly dominated by private companies (≠cooperatives) with:
o Chateau Indage
- Set up in 1984 near Pune; known in the west for the Omar Khayyam sparkling wine, produces 6m btls/yr
- imported French equipment and know-how to build India’s most sophisticated winery
- Planted international varieties e.g. Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir, Cab Sauv & Merlot on south-facing
limestone slopes in Narayangaon, 150km from Pune
o Grover vineyards
- First tried 35 varieties and settled on Cabernet Sauvignon and Clairette, grown on pergolas
Bhutan
Himalayan micro-kingdom with a single wine grape vineyard established in the early 1990s with the technical assistance of Australian wine company Taltarni. The vineyard is at 2,300 m/7,500 ft at Paro, near the capital Thimphu, but it is not known whether any wine resulted.
Korea
Rugged, mountainous peninsula on the Asian mainland, between China and Japan, for long a producer of table grapes and of commercial wine since 1977 when the large beverages group, DooSan Baekwha, launched its Majuang label, which still accounts for the majority of domestic wine produced. The first wine was a substitute for imported sacramental wine for the Korean Catholic Church but its ultimate goal was to reach local consumers with an affordable alternative to costly imported table wines. Wine consumption in Korea has soared this century but the market is still almost entirely reliant on imports. DooSan’s early local rivals have mostly abandoned their wine ventures but recent entrants, notably Chateau Mani and Kenneth Kim Vineyards, have mounted a limited challenge. The tiny East of Eden Winery has attracted attention with its sweetish red wine made from the exotic wild Vitis amurensis mountain grape (literally sanmeoru). An increasing number of wineries are working principally with this variety because the extremely cold winters and rainy, humid summers are far from ideal for Vitis vinifera vines. Vineyards are scattered throughout the country and totalled 19,000 ha/47,000 acres in 2011 according to oiv figures. The limited proportion attached to commercial winemaking operations are either in the south east of the peninsula in the provinces of North and South Gyeongsang on sandy or stony sedimentary soils, and favoured by a milder maritime climate, or in the provinces of Gyeonggi and Chungcheong in the north west. The main varieties grown for the table are the hybrid Campbell Early, comprising two thirds of the total vineyard area, and Kyoho. Varieties grown specifically for wine are Riesling, Seibel, White Muscat (muscat blanc à petit grains), muscat bailey a, although Campbell Early is also used for wine. Some local labels, including Marjuang, rely on locally bottled imported bulk wine. To the credit of the producers and the regulatory authorities, this information is declared on the label—all in Korean, of course.
Indonesia
Had six wineries by 2014, all on the resort island of Bali. The industry pioneer, Hatten Wines, is still by far the largest winemaking enterprise, now turning out 1 million bottles a year. It began making wines from locally grown grapes in 1994, operating from an old rice wine factory at Sanur Beach in the south east of the island, but most of its grapes are grown near the city of Singaraja at the northern extreme of the island (8 °latitude). Here, the elevation provides some modest respite from the relentless tropical heat and humidity but climatic conditions are such that the vines crop almost continuously. These vineyards were planted originally for table grapes with the French vinifera table grape Alphonse Lavallée (Ribier) growing on overhead pergolas. muscat varieties were planted more recently and Shiraz and chambourcin have been trialled for more robust reds. Indico Wines, now called Singaraja Hills, was the second winery on Bali, established in 1998. Sababay Wines is the third winery working principally with domestically grown grapes. The others produce wine from imported grapes or must, to avoid the onerous taxes on imported alcohol. Hatten’s range of wines made from Australian must is sold under the Two Islands label.
Myanmar
(formerly Burma), tropical South East Asian nation, bordered by thailand, Laos, china, india, and Bangladesh, has two wineries, both focused on classic vinifera wine styles. Myanmar Vineyard Estate, with elevated vineyards (1,200 m/3,937 ft) on limestone slopes on the southern extension of the Himalayan ranges, west of the Shan state capital Taunggyi, first produced wine commercially in 2004. Sauvignon Blanc, Shiraz, and Cabernet Sauvignon are produced under the Aythaya label. Red Mountain Estate is located a bit further south, on the shores of Inle Lake, a popular tourist resort. Its first commercial vintage was 2008.
Nepal
Apparently home to one of the highest vineyards in the world (2,750 m/9,000 ft). Two hectares of vinifera vines were planted in 1992 at Jomsom in the Annapurna region by a local politician keen to foster a new industry in this remote corner of the world, but it is not known if wine resulted.
Sri Lanka
(formerly Ceylon), tropical Indian Ocean island nation where two fledgling, very small-scale ventures have tried to make wine from established plantings of Cardinal, Black Muscat, and a variety called Israel Blue vines originally grown for table grapes. In 2014, two companies were licensed to make wine from imported must and grape concentrate as well as local fruit, including grapes. One is a collaborative venture with an Italian company.
Taiwan
Otherwise known as the Republic of China, island off, and independent of, china with about 3,000 ha/7,500 acres of vines in 2011 according to the oiv. Prior to the dismantling of the government alcohol monopoly following Taiwan’s accession to the World Trade Organization in 2002, grape growers were not permitted to make wine. They were instead encouraged to sell their grapes to the government agency. Since then, under a government-backed industry development project, wine production has become increasingly popular. Among the many new ventures producing a diverse range of fruit wines are a growing number now producing grape wine—primarily from Black Queen for red wines and Golden Muscat for whites. An indication of progress was the awarding of a gold medal to a Taiwanese wine, a Golden Muscat ice wine produced by Domaine Shu-Sheng winery, at Vinalies Internationales in 2014.
Vietnam
Small, South East Asian country with a history of viticulture dating from French colonial times. Recent attempts to revive viticultural traditions and make wine have had mixed results. The most suitable locations for conventional viticulture in this hot and wet country are in the highlands—on the slopes of Ba Vi Mountain west of Hanoi, for example, where vinifera vines were grown by French colonists about a century ago, or on the upper slopes of the central highlands. Contrarily, however, Vietnam’s first commercial grape winemaking venture, the Thien Thai Winery, was established on the steamy southern coastal plain at Phan Rang, in Ninh Thuan province, 350 km/210 miles north east of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). The attraction was the existence of established vineyards producing substantial quantities of table grapes a year, mostly from red-berried cardinal vines grown on pergolas. The first wines, both still and sparkling, were released in 1995 but the winery was mothballed in 2002. Subsequently, though, two of the biggest fruit wine producers began drawing on grapes grown in Ninh Thuan for still and sparkling grape wines. Hanoi-based Thang Long Liquor uses primarily Cardinal and more recently planted Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc for its grape wines. Lam Dong Foodstuffs, through its beverage subsidiary Vang Dalat (Dalat Wine), is now Vietnam’s largest grape wine producer and has also drawn on these grapes as well as a large vineyard it has developed close to the Central Highlands city of Dalat. Many domestic wine labels also rely, sometimes exclusively, on imported bulk wine bottled locally.
Under natural conditions, the southern vines bear almost continuously (see tropical viticulture). Systematic pruning has been adopted in some wine grape vineyards, however, to induce three output peaks (‘vintages’) in order to facilitate a manageable crushing schedule. international varieties have been trialled under Australian technical supervision—on land which was, until 1995, a minefield left over from the Vietnam war. chambourcin produces prolifically and copes best with the humidity. In the trials, a number of varieties progressed from cuttings to fruit in a single year.
Thomson Seedless
Is the common california name for the seedless white grape variety sultana. It acquired this name from an early grower of the variety, near Yuba City, one William Thompson. Thompson Seedless is California’s most planted grape variety by far. Almost all of California’s Thompson Seedless is planted in the hot, dry san joaquin valley, with nearly two-thirds in Fresno county, the powerhouse of California raisin production. In 1960, almost 70% of all grapes crushed for white wine were Thompson Seedless, clearly indicating what made up the 49% of ‘other grapes’ then allowed in wines labelled as varietals. In the 1970s, Thompson Seedless was particularly useful to the California wine industry in helping to bulk out inexpensive white jug wine blends at a time when demand far outstripped supply of premium white wine grape varieties. Today, however, it is used mainly either for drying grapes, as material for distillation, or for grape concentrate to sweeten bottled waters or cold tea drinks.
Rkatsiteli
Ancient, cold-hardy Georgian white grape variety which was so widely planted in what was the Soviet Union that in 1990 it was estimated to be the world’s third most planted overall. Thanks to President gorbachev’s vine pull scheme, by 2000 it had fallen to fourteenth place. It is still widely planted in the former Soviet republics, however, being grown in all of its wine-producing independent republics with the exception of turkmenistan. It is, understandably, most important in georgia, particularly in Kakheti. It is also the most planted variety in ukraine, second only to Muscat Ottonel in bulgaria, is widely planted in moldova, and is commonplace in russia and armenia. As Baiyu it reached China and has adapted well to the inland wine regions there with their cold winters. It was presumably its cold resistance that inspired Finger Lakes grower Konstantin Frank to plant it in New York state and it is now planted in Virginia and several other American states.
Much is demanded of this productive variety and it achieves much, providing a base for a wide range of wine styles, including fortified wines and brandy. The wine is distinguished by a keen level of acidity, easily 9 g/l even when picked as late as October, and by good sugar levels too.
Muscat of Hamburg
Is the lowest quality of the wine-producing muscats. dna profiling at conegliano showed that it is a natural cross of muscat of alexandria and trollinger (also called schiava Grossa). It comes exclusively in black-berried form and is far more common as a table grape than a wine grape. Its chief attribute is the consistency of its plump and shiny dark blue grapes, which can well withstand long journeys to reach consumers who like black-skinned Muscat-flavoured grapes. In France it was grown on 3,376 ha/8,339 acres in 2011 and was the most important table grape. It is also relatively important as a table grape in Greece, in eastern Europe, and Australia. It was extremely popular as a greenhouse grape in Victorian England, where it occasionally took the name of Snow or Venn, two of its more successful propagators.
In the world of wine production, its importance is limited but it does produce a fair quantity of light, grapey red throughout eastern Europe, some ‘Black Muscat’ in California, and in china, crossed with the indigenous vitis amurensis, it has spawned a generation of varieties adapted for wine production.
Delaware
Dark pink-skinned vitis labrusca vine variety that is quite popular in new york and, for reasons that are now obscure, is also planted in japan and korea. Its early ripening is presumably an advantage in Japan’s damp autumns. The wine is not as markedly foxy as that of its great New York rival concord. It was first propagated in Delaware, Ohio, in 1849.
Grape Concentrate
Is what is left when the volatile elements are removed from fresh grape juice. Rarely used to produce really fine wine, it can provide a useful supply of grape soluble solids for use long after the harvest . Grape concentrate is the main ingredient, for example, in so-called made wines produced without the benefit of freshly picked grapes (see british wines and home winemaking). Grape concentrate can also be used in blending to soften and sweeten dry wines of everyday commercial standard made in cooler regions. It is widely used in Germany, for example, where it is called Süssreserve. For more details of grape concentrate used for sweetening purposes, see sweet reserve. Grape concentrate is also in some circumstances used for enrichment, increasing the eventual alcohol content of a wine (it is a permitted prefermentation additive in Australia, for instance, although sugar is not). It is also used to sweeten some other fruit juices and foodstuffs, and is sometimes used as an alternative to honey. Concentrate is also used to produce a small category of high-intensity red and purple colourants, used to enhance colour and add body to wines.
Historically, winemakers made a form of grape concentrate by simply boiling grape juice until the volume was reduced by at least one-half. This resulted in a liquid with a strong cooked, caramel flavour, however, and such an additive is used exclusively for sweet, dark, strong wines such as rich sherry, málaga, and marsala. In Spain it is known as arrope.
Today, the caramelizing effect is avoided by concentration of the grape juice under very low temperatures in vacuum evaporators. Modern low pressure concentrators represent a heavy investment for a winery selling anything other than the most expensive wine. They therefore tend to be operated by specialists who may use them to concentrate other fruit juices at other times of year. Most grape juice is subject to clarification and is reduced in tartrates before concentration so that the solids precipitated are minimal when water is removed. See also rectified grape must.
Red grape concentrate may be made by first heating the grapes to extract pigments into the juice before concentration.
Tropical Viticulture
Although the grapevine is regarded by many as a strictly temperate plant, it is now increasingly grown in the tropics, defined approximately as the region bordered by the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Countries in which some grapes, generally table grapes, are cultivated in tropical conditions include australia, cambodia, Colombia, bolivia, brazil, ecuador, india, indonesia, kenya, Laos, mexico, myanmar, namibia, Nigeria, the Philippines, sri lanka, tanzania, thailand, venezuela, and vietnam.
Within the tropics there are many different climates, modified by differences in elevation and rainfall. Lowland tropical areas can be divided into those regions which are almost continuously wet, those with pronounced wet and dry seasons, and those which are virtually arid. In the lowland wet tropics, grapevines adopt an evergreen growth habit and can be manipulated into cropping more than once per year, mainly by pruning twice, immediately after harvest, and by the application of chemicals which induce dormant buds to burst. Other chemicals are used, particularly for table grapes, which retard growth and induce flower buds to form (see growth regulators).
In areas with pronounced wet and dry seasons, pruning and removing all vegetation can induce a form of dormancy, which leads to budbreak and a second vine growth cycle. In some tropical countries, grapes can be ripening as temperatures are rising, contrary to most temperate areas, where ripening proceeds as temperatures fall.
In arid tropical areas, irrigation is essential to permit vine growth. Here budburst is initiated by pruning and withholding irrigation water. Highland tropical areas with elevations in excess of 1,000 m/3,280 ft can have climates that are almost temperate with temperatures that are sufficiently low (less than 15 °C/59 °F) to induce normal dormancy and allow grapevines to follow a climate-controlled growth cycle, as for non-tropical areas.
The majority of tropical grapes are consumed as table grapes. However, increasing amounts are used as drying grapes, especially in India, or fermented into wine. Grapevines can be very productive in the tropics, giving yields of fresh fruit of 140 to 280 hl/ha, or 8 to 16 tons/acre, more than once a year—so tropical viticulture can yield relatively inexpensive wine, as in the far north of Brazil, for example, although in Thailand producers are increasingly encouraging vines to produce a single higher quality crop every 12 months.
Depending on the climate, tropical grapes can be programmed to reach maturity at times of the year when other fresh fruit is not available, or when international prices are very high.
Fungal Diseases
Very large group of vine diseases which are caused by small, mostly microscopic, and filament-shaped organisms. Since fungi lack chlorophyll they need to live on other organisms to obtain nourishment. Fungal diseases have been of major significance in affecting grape production over centuries, with important consequences for both quantity and quality. Today they receive little public attention since they can successfully be controlled by a wide range of agricultural chemicals. In fact the famous fungicide bordeaux mixture was used commercially to control downy mildew in 1885 and for 50 years was the most important control of other fungal and bacterial plant diseases. Fungal disease epidemics are commonly related to weather conditions; examples are downy mildew and botrytis bunch rot, both of which are favoured by warm, wet or humid weather, while powdery mildew is favoured by overcast weather.
Many of the economically important fungal diseases originated in America and therefore common varieties of the European vinifera species have no resistance. Thus, when powdery mildew was introduced in 1847, and then downy mildew in 1878, French V. vinifera vineyards were devastated. Fungal diseases can attack shoots and leaves but also developing bunches and ripe fruit. Some fungi such as Armillaria and Verticillium attack roots. Of more recent concern are a group of fungi which cause trunk diseases. They spread in vineyards and are also common contaminants of young vines propagated in grapevine nurseries.
Botrytis is the fungus with which wine consumers are probably most familiar. In its benevolent form (see noble rot), it contributes to a high proportion of the most famous sweet wines. The more common malevolent form (see grey rot) causes substantial yield and quality losses, on the other hand.
Common fungal diseases are anthracnose, armillaria root rot, black rot, botrytis bunch rot, bunch rots, collar rot, dead arm, downy mildew, esca, eutypa dieback, powdery mildew, texas root rot, verticillium wilt, white rot. Other groups of vine diseases include bacterial diseases, phytoplasma diseases, and virus diseases.
Humidity
Or moisture content, of the atmosphere has considerable implications both for vine growth and for storing barrels and wine, whether in bulk or bottle. Humidity is normally measured as per cent relative humidity (% RH): the amount of water vapour a given volume of air holds, as a percentage of the maximum it could hold at the same temperature. The latter amount increases with temperature, so the RH of air containing a constant amount of water vapour falls as temperature rises, and vice versa. Humidity can also be expressed as saturation deficit, which is a direct measure of the evaporative power of the atmosphere. Actual evaporation is further influenced by wind and sunlight.
Relative humidity follows a regular daily cycle, normally being highest in the early morning, when temperature is lowest, and lowest in the early to mid afternoon, when temperature is highest. Broadly speaking, high humidity is conducive to the spread of fungal diseases, especially when combined with high temperatures. High morning humidity creates dew, which is also important for some diseases. The afternoon humidity, together with sunshine, temperature, and wind, dominate in determining evaporation, and therefore the likelihood of water stress. The contrast between morning and afternoon relative humidities tends to be greatest inland, and least near coasts.
Gladstones argues that high humidity levels, critically those in the afternoon, are conducive to high wine quality. Where the vines suffer little water stress, photosynthesis is relatively continuous and there is maximum production of sugar in grapes and its derivatives in the form of berry colour, flavour, and aroma. Higher humidity will limit transpiration so there will be less uptake of certain minerals into the vines and fruit, including potassium. Must and natural wine ph should therefore be lower, with benefits for brightness of wine colour, freshness of wine flavour and aroma, and greater resistance to oxidation and bacterial spoilage.
Viticultural regions of the world with high afternoon relative humidities during the fruiting period include all those of Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and hungary; Burgundy, Alsace, Champagne, the Loire Valley, Bordeaux, and the Mediterranean coastal strip of France; marginally central and northern Italy, and the upper Rioja region of Spain; Madeira and some exposed coastal areas of Portugal; most of the coolest parts (Region I: see climate classification) of the coastal valleys of California, Oregon, and Washington; the Cape Town/Constantia area in South Africa; Margaret River and the south coast of Western Australia; coastal Victoria; and all of Tasmania and New Zealand. Many of these regions have experienced marked increases in humidity recently because of climate change; warmer air can hold more moisture.
Typical areas of intermediate humidity include the southern Rhône Valley of France; most inland table wine-producing areas of Portugal, such as Dão, and of Spain; Bulgaria; intermediate and warmer parts of the coastal valleys of California, such as the Napa and Santa Clara Valleys; Stellenbosch and Paarl in South Africa; the Western Australian west coast and hills; Barossa, Adelaide Hills, Langhorne Creek, and Coonawarra in South Australia; Grampians and other parts of the Great Dividing Range in Victoria; and the Hunter Valley and marginally Mudgee in New South Wales.
Viticultural regions with low afternoon relative humidities are nearly all hot as well, and tend to have high temperature variability. Such regions include the middle and upper Douro Valley of Portugal (to a moderate degree); the Central Valley of California; the Little Karoo in South Africa; and the Murray and Murrumbidgee Valley areas of South Australia, northern Victoria, and southern New South Wales.
The tendency for more humid wine regions to have higher quality reputations is evident from the above list, but compelling evidence for this based on vine physiology is yet to be developed.
India
large Asian country where wine consumption, production, and quality are increasing steadily. A growing middle class (likely to number 250 million by 2015) should maintain this trend, despite high taxes, licensing fees, discriminatory inter-state policies, and a number of dry states.
India- History
The vine was probably introduced into north-west India from Persia during the Indus civilization in the 4th millennium bc, but wine may not have been made from its fruit for many centuries. The gradual invasion of Aryan tribes from central Asia during the 2nd millennium bc produced the Vedic period (c.2000–800 bc), a blossoming of culture in north west India. The Aryans enjoyed gambling, music, and intoxicating drink, and in the four Vedas, the world’s oldest religious texts, two drinks are mentioned: soma, a milky drink ceremoniously prepared immediately before a sacrifice and probably containing hallucinatory hemp; and sura, a potent secular drink made from either barley or paddy (rice) fermented with honey.
While praising the rowdy and hard-drinking Aryan warrior god Indra, the Vedas clearly condemn the effects of drinking. Later, Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain texts reveal similar dichotomies. Kautilya, chief minister under the Mauryan King Chandragupta (ruled c.324–300 bc), was the author of the Arthasastra, a remarkable text on statecraft in which he condemns alcohol and yet chronicles the king’s drinking bouts and mentions madhu (wine) of various varieties and qualities. This is the first documentation of wine made from grapes in India.
Down the centuries, wine has maintained its status in India as a drink of the Kshatriya caste of aristocrats and warriors rather than of the masses, who have preferred more potent alcohol prepared from the staple local agricultural cereal crops.
The contradictory attitudes towards intoxicating drinks continue into modern times. The Muslim (see islam) Mughal emperors’ royal vineyards were in the Deccan; the alcoholic emperor Jehangir (who ruled 1605–27) would drink himself insensible on double- and triple-distilled wine (brandy), violating the Qurʾān’s command not to lose one’s sensibilities through intoxication.
Secular independent India’s Constitution, adopted on 26 January 1950, states total prohibition of alcohol among its aims (in deference to Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation). However, only a few states such as Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Haryana ever enforced, variously, limited or total prohibition. Today Gujarat (Mahatma Gandhi’s home state) is the only major state that still has prohibition.
Although the orthodox of all faiths may abstain, Indians everywhere (except Gujarat) are free to consume wine and other alcohol if they choose.
Indian viticulture was encouraged in the 19th century as the Victorian British upper classes enjoyed drinking wine. Vineyards were established in Kashmīr, Bārāmati, Surat, and Goalkonda. A number of Indian wines were exhibited at the Great Calcutta Exhibition of 1884 and elicited favourable comment. But in the 1890s, Indian vineyards, like their European counterparts, succumbed to phylloxera.
Since Independence in 1947, wine production has increased very slowly as it requires long-term investment and, ideally, a strong local market. Goa continued to produce low-quality fortified wines made in the image of port, an industry initiated by Portuguese colonists in the 16th century.
Until the 1990s, the small Indian wine industry went virtually unnoticed outside the country, partly because of the quality of the wine, made by rudimentary village operations, with the exception of a large winery and distillery established in Hyderābād and Bangalore in 1966 by the Shaw Wallace group, producing Golconda and Bosca wines.
India- Viticulture
India’s 111,000 ha/274,287 acres of vineyards produce more than 1.2 million tons of grapes a year, of which less than 10% are used for wine while the bulk is used as table grapes and raisins. Established vineyards of mainly table grapes are found in the temperate north west of the country and as far south as the state of Tamil Nadu. Two-thirds of the country’s area under vine, however, is in the south-central states of Mahārāshtra (86,000 ha/212,510 acres), Karnataka (18,100 ha/44,726 acres), and Tamil Nadu (2,700 ha/6,672 acres). In Mahārāshtra, cultivation is concentrated around Pune, Nāsik, Baramati, Sangali, and Sholhāpur on the west of the Deccan Plateau, about 300 km/180 miles in length and 60 km in width, 135 km inland from Mumbai. The remainder of southern India’s plantings are near Bangalore and around Hyderābād.
Plantings range from elevations of 300 m/984 ft on the Deccan in Mahārāshtra and 200 m/660 ft in Karnataka and a few at 800 m/2,600 ft on the slopes of Sahyadri. With India’s hot summer and heavy monsoon, temperatures in growing areas range from 8 °C/46 °F in winter to 45 °C in summer, 625–1,500 mm (25–60 in) of rain falling between June and August depending on the region. There is little unseasonal rain. Humidity levels are high particularly during the monsoon, moderated only by afternoon winds. Eastern regions suffer most from humidity and extreme heat.
thompson seedless (Sultana) is by far the most widely planted variety, accounting for over half the total vineyard area, although international varieties are increasingly planted by the leading wine companies. Indigenous table grapes such as Anab-e-shahi are grown along with Bangalore Blue (isabella) and Bangalore Purple, which are the major varieties in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka along with some Gulabi (muscat of hamburg), and small amounts of Perlette. These varieties account for less than 10% of Indian grapes, however, with a small proportion used for low-quality sweet wines in Goa and south India..
Vines are trained high on wire and bamboo with wide row spacing to retain soil water, prevent sunburn, and maximize aeration of the vines, minimizing the risk of fungal diseases. Since the early 1980s, drip irrigation has been used throughout the growing season and yields are high, up to 700 or 900 hl/ha (40 or 50 tons/ha). Pruning takes place in April and September with harvest (always manual in India) in February and March. In warmer regions, particularly Andhra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu two harvests a year are possible.
India- The Contemporary Wine Industry
The current renaissance of Indian viticulture began with pioneers Chateau Indage (known later as Indage Vintners) in 1984 near Pune in Mahārāshtra and Grover Vineyards in 1988 north of Bangalore in Karnataka, both of which set themselves the goal of exporting. Indage produced a surprisingly elegant sparkling wine for the international market. A short-sighted and aggressive overseas expansion programme and diversification in 2007/08 resulted in its collapse soon afterwards. Grover Vineyards trialled 33 vine varieties initially and settled principally on Cabernet Sauvignon and Clairette, which grow on pergolas. Its first wine was released in 1992. With French oenologist Michel rolland as its wine consultant, Grover’s quality and reputation grew steadily, especially for its flagship La Reserve, a Cabernet-Shiraz blend. In 2012 Grover Vineyards merged with Nashik-based Vallée de Vin (whose main brand is Zampa) to form Grover Zampa Vineyards with the aim of growing considerably.
Sula Vineyards, founded by former Silicon Valley engineer Ranjeev Samant, set up its winery in Nashik in Mahārāshtra in 1999 with the help of Californian Kerry Damskey. Sula produced India’s first varietal Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, and Zinfandel. In 2005 Sula overtook Grover to become India’s largest wine producer following the demise of Indage Vintners. Today Sula’s market share is around 70%, with sales of over seven million bottles in 2013. Sula wines are exported to 20 countries around the world. Under Sula Selections, the company also imports and distributes wine and has spearheaded wine tourism in India.
Other prominent wineries with national distribution are Four Seasons owned by United Spirits (with Diageo as a major shareholder), Nine Hills of Pernod Ricard India, and Fratelli Wines, India’s first Indo-Italian collaboration based in Akluj, near Pune. Superior Nashik-based wineries with national distribution include Vintage Wines, whose Reveilo brand specialises in the Italian varieties Sangiovese, Nero d’Avola, and Grillo, and Vallonnée, a small producer of French-inspired wines.
Promising wine producers include York Winery near Sula Vineyards, where Moët & Chandon produced their first vintage of Chandon sparkling wine in October 2013; Charosa Wineries set up in 2008 by industrialist Ajit Gulabchand in Nashik; krsma Estates, a boutique winery near the UNESCO heritage site of Hampi in Karnataka; and Alpine Wineries near Mysore (also in Karnataka) which has 240 ha/1,200 acres planted with Stéphane derenoncourt as consultant. Smaller producers such as Big Banyan (John Distilleries), Kinvah (Nandi Hills Winery), and Luca (Nirvana Biosys in Haryana) sell their wines only in a few states.
China
Vast Asian country with its own indigenous vine species (see vitis) but a relatively short modern tradition of growing vinifera grapes to make wine. In a remarkably short time, however, it has emerged as a major global wine force, with the world’s fourth largest vineyard area and fifth largest wine production level in 2012 according to oiv statistics. Consumption doubled between 2006 and 2012, and is overwhelmingly (more than 80%) satisfied by domestic production.
China- Ancient China
Vines have long been grown in China. Geological fossils show that the V. romanetii Roman du Caill. ex Planch. existed in Linqu County, Shandong Province, 26 million years ago. As outlined in origins of viniculture, to date the earliest chemically attested instance of grapes being used in a fermented beverage, probably mixed with other fermentable ingredients, is at the Neolithic site of Jiahu in the Yellow River during the 7th millennium bc. The earliest written record of grapes in China is seen in Qi Yue in the Odes of Bin in the Classic of Poetry:
In the sixth month they eat the sparrow-plums and grapes; in the seventh, they cook the kui and pulse; in the eighth, they knock down the dates; in the tenth, they reap the rice and make the spirits for the spring, for the benefit of the bushy eyebrows.
(Translated by James Legge)
(Translated by James Legge)
This indicates that people were already known to collect and eat various kinds of wild grapes in the Shang Dynasty (c.1600 bc–c.1000 bc).
The introduction of V. vinifera to China can be dated back to the 4th century bc. In the book On Ancient Central Asian Tracks: Brief Narrative of Three Expeditions in Innermost Asia and Northwestern China, Marc Aurel Stein describes the tidy plots of vineyard sites outside the courtyard of houses in the ancient city of Niya (first to third century ad) 150 km/93 miles north of the modern Minfeng county, Shan Shan prefecture in Xinjiang. A 1959 archaeological investigation of Niya by a team from Xinjiang Uygur Automonous Region Museum and a later Sino-Japanese 1988-96 operation excavated relics from an ancient tomb decorated with patterns of grape clusters, as well as dried grapes in containers. Carbon-14 dating indicates that the tomb is 2,295±75 years old. It would seem therefore that there was viticulture on a considerable scale in Niya from the third to first centuries bc. Archaeological expeditions in southern turkmenistan and uzbekistan, which unearthed grapes and both text descriptions and patterns of grapes from a fourth-century residential site also suggest that V. vinifera may well have been introduced to China from Central Asia along the Silk Route.
Two notable old varieties of V. vinifera, both table grapes, are the dark-skinned Dragon’s Eye (Longyan, or Longan, in Chinese) and pale Mare’s Teat (Maru), the former long grown along the path of the Great Wall and, even longer, in the far west. Their import and successful cultivation in China shows us that viticulture prospered in Xinjiang, Gansu, Shanxi, and Hebei provinces. Shanxi wine continued to be popular after the decline of trade along the Silk Route following a break in relations with central Asia. It was not long before wine was also being made from the small native grapes of the V. thunbergii species, which grows wild in Shandong and Jiangxi provinces, and from the Vitis heyneana of Guangxi province, V. davidii of Jiangxi and Hunan province, and V. amurensis of north-eastern China.
China- Modern History
Viticulture continued in China (jullien classified the wines of what he called Chinese Tartary). In 1892, Zhang Bishi, who was born in Guangdong in China, moved to Indonesia as a successful businessman, and was then consul in southern Asian countries for the Qing government, returned to China and established the Changyu winery in Yantai. He introduced 120 V. vinifera varieties from Europe, including Welschriesling, and apparently employed the then Austrian consul as his winemaker. Qingdao (formerly rendered as Tsingtao), the other winery established by Germans in 1930, was first known as the Melco winery. Shang Yi winery (today’s Beijing winery) was set up by French Catholics in 1910; Yi Hua winery was set up in Shanxi by Chinese in 1921, and Chang Bai Shan and Tung Hua (Tonghua) wineries at Jilin were set up and managed by the Japanese in 1936 and 1937 respectively. The wines produced by them were made mainly to cater for foreign communities in China.
In 1949, the wineries were expanded by the government and, for reasons of economy, they generally blended grape wine with other juices, water, colouring, and fermented cereals. Because of this, the term ‘wine’ was until recently widely misunderstood in China. The relevant Chinese character ‘jiu’ literally means alcohol in any form, so it was difficult to distinguish wine from beer or spirits. From June 2004, national wine production regulations were changed so that only alcoholic drinks based entirely on fresh grapes or grape juice may be called ‘wine’.
China- Geography and Climate
Most of China’s 665,610 ha/1.7 million acres of vineyards (in 2012) are spread across provinces north of the Yangtze River, from the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in the extreme north west (where 21.5% of vines are planted) to the coastal regions of Hebei (11.4%) and Shandong (5.6%). Shanxi and Liaoning grow 5.3% of China’s vines each, Henan grows 4.5%, Ningxia 4.4%, and Yunnan in south western China 4.1%. Owing to the general lack of exposure to Western wine culture and extreme continental conditions inland, production in all regions has been concentrated on table grapes and drying grapes . China’s 980 ‘alcohol manufacturing factories’ (the literal translation of the word for winery) vinify only about one-sixth of the total grape harvest (an estimated 10,543,154 tons of grapes for wine in 2012).
Temperatures in the coastal provinces of Shandong, Hebei, and Tianjin, which lie on the latitudes 36 to 40 °N, are generally suitable for wine production. Cool Pacific breezes moderate humidity levels and temperatures range from -5 °C/23 °F in the north in winter to 26 °C/79 °F in the south in summer. Monsoons and typhoons which sweep in from the South China Sea can prove hazardous, although monsoon winds rapidly aerate vines. Springs are generally dry, but summers and autumns can be muggy and wet, promoting fungal diseases and rot. Chinese peasants learnt, probably from the Soviet Union in the early 1950s, to establish their vineyards on flat land with fertile soil and to encourage high yields. Over-cropping, poor drainage and vineyards vulnerable to typhoons resulted in poor-quality fruit and therefore poor-quality wines in these coastal provinces.
Since the late 1990s the most spectacular vineyard expansion has been in Xinjiang on tableland north of the provincial capital Urumqi, the new industrial centre of the Manasi Basin near the city of Shiheze, and the Yanqi Basin in the south of Xinjiang. Natural rainfall is low but vineyards tap the huge alpine water resource of the perennially snow-capped Tian Shan (Heavenly Mountains) range through natural river systems and man-made canals. The soils are sandy loam over granite. The region is relatively disease free and requires only minimal spraying. Xinjiang may produce the biggest volume of wine in China, but most of it is sold in bulk to wineries in eastern regions.
Ningxia, an arid and semi-arid zone in the centre of China, has high sunshine hours and moderate temperatures compared with eastern and far western regions. The Yellow River provides irrigation water and, since the turn of the century, the local government has been providing financial incentives for investors in vineyards and wineries.
The neighbouring Gansu province has a similar climate but is a little cooler with a slightly shorter frost-free growing season. Gansu has long history of winemaking, and more and more vines have been planted there this century. But, like most wine regions in China’s interior—whether Xinjiang, Ningxia, or Gansu—vines need winter protection. This practice swallows one third of a year’s entire vineyard management costs and is already the biggest challenge for Chinese growers, let alone when China’s likely increasing urbanization causes a shortage of labour.
The Shangri-la area is a particularly interesting new wine region in an area close to Tibet within both Yunnan province (Deqin County) and Sichuan province (Danba and Xiaojin Counties). Vines are planted on steep valley sides at elevations between 1,600 and 2,900 m. This combination of low latitudes with high elevations confers moderate temperatures and a notably long frost-free season meaning that winter protection is unnecessary, rainfall is sufficient and generally well timed, and the dry air reduces the risk of vine disease. On the other hand, viticulture is not traditional in Shangri-La so training costs are high, and transport can be a challenge in these mountains where, in places, there are as many as 20 parcels of vines per hectare.
China- Wineries
Jesuit missionaries are believed to have been the first to encourage the planting of vineyards specifically to make wine here, in the mid 19th century. During the German and Japanese occupation of northern China at the turn of the 20th century, the first two wineries were established at Yantai and Qingdao. However, still and sparkling wine production in the five largest state wineries—Qingdao, Yantai Changyu, Henan Min Chuan, Beijing Eastern Rural, and Jilin Tung Hua—remained very unsophisticated until 1978 when China opened again to the outside world.
After 1979, several moves were made to allow foreign investors to install a modern wine industry in north-east China. In 1980, Cognac giant Rémy Martin set up the first joint venture winery, Sino-French Joint Venture Winery (Dynasty), with the Tianjin Agriculture Bureau. The Henan Minquan winery first used the brand Great Wall for wine but the trademark was subsequently registered by the monopolistic China National Cereals, Oils, Foodstuffs Import & Export Corporation (COFCO), which established the business at Shacheng in Hebei Province in 1988. Both Dynasty and Great Wall applied modern winemaking techniques but produced relatively simple white table wines from the local Dragon’s Eye (Longyan), muscat of hamburg, and other local table grapes. The Huadong (East China) winery, China’s first ‘château-style’ wine estate to plant and produce varietal and vintage-dated superior white wines with an appellation, Tsingtao, on the label, was established at Qingdao in 1985 and run by a British wine merchant from Hong Kong until 1990 when it was acquired and run by the multinational Allied Domecq, who abandoned it in 1999, since which time it has turned to mass production of inexpensive red wine. Another multinational, pernod ricard, set up the Beijing Friendship (Dragon Seal) winery in 1987. All ventures relied on imported advanced vinification equipment, European vinifera vine cuttings, and foreign oenologists to produce the first ‘western-style’ grape wines in China. State wineries followed their lead, among them, changyu and Qingdao in Shandong.
In the mid and late 1990s, the Chinese government repeatedly encouraged the replacement of cereal-based spirits with fruit-based wines, motivated both by health concerns and by an acute grain shortage. Official recommendation of red wine as reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease sparked a wine boom throughout China. In 1996/97, Chinese wine consumers switched from favouring white to red wine. Thousands of cases of red wine were shipped in from Europe and rushed on to the market. Millions of litres of wine were shipped in bulk for local bottling. Distillers of traditional baijiu (white spirits) adapted their plants to make or bottle wines. Small wineries and bottling plants mushroomed all over China: more than 100 new wineries opened between 1996 and 2004.
By the beginning of the new century, a number of large wine companies had established wineries surrounded by vines and offering some tourism facilities. Examples included the high quality Grace Vineyard of Shanxi province; Changyu Castel in Yantai, Shandong; Chateau Bolongbao in Beijing; and in Hebei province Bodega Langes (a boutique winery and cooperage owned by the Austrian owner of Norton in Mendoza); Rongchen winery, the first (of many) ‘French chateau-style’ wineries, the Sino-French Demonstration Vineyard, and Great Wall’s Chateau Sungod.
The traditional vineyard area of the burgeoning north west once centred on the Turpan Depression oases, which can be 155 m/500 ft below sea level. Production had been almost entirely devoted to drying grapes and table grapes with only a small proportion of Sultanine being made into sweet, simple, often oxidized dessert wines by Xinjiang’s state wineries, without any means of temperature control. Xingjiang’s first western-style winery, Lou Lan, was established there in the 1970s, initially state-owned and then in private hands. Its French winemaker made some promising Cabernet Sauvignon. The big move forward, however, came with the launch of the huge ViniSuntime wine venture in 1998. It was sold to the Guoan subsidiary of CITIC (China International Trust and Investment Corporation) in 2008 and is now known as CITIC Guoan winery. In terms of grape throughput it rivals the traditional industry leaders in China—Changyu (its Chinese holding much diluted in the early 2000s), COFCO Great Wall, and Dynasty—with its 10,000 ha/24,700 acres of vines and several wineries.
This century saw other new ventures in Xinjiang such as the Yanqi Xiangdu winery, a Sino-French joint venture that launched its first wines in 2004 under the Champs d’Or label, and Tiansai vineyard and Zhongfei winery that were set up in the same region in 2010 and 2012 respectively.
Other notable new wine ventures include in Ningxia province the sizeable Xi Xia King, pernod ricard’s Helan Mountain, Imperial Horse, lvmh’s Domaine Chandon, COFCO’s Château Yunmo, and Changyu’s Chateau Moser XV, as well as the much smaller Helan Qingxue and Silver Heights. Mogao is another notable new winery in Gansu province.
In the far south west of China LVMH have set up another joint-venture winery in Deqin County, Yunnan province, with the Shangrila Wine Group. In Huanren county in Liaoning province in north east China, several wineries are now specializing in ice wine.
China- Grape Varieties
Selecting and breeding table grapes and wine grapes started in China in the 1950s. Before that, all vine varieties were the result of long-term natural selection and manual breeding. The aim of wine vine breeding in China was to breed red wine varieties with cold resistance. Even nowadays, the European species (vinifera) in northern China (including Xinjiang and Ningxia) would be frozen to death without winter protection. The highly cold-resistant Mongolian species Vitis amurensis has been widely used, not least for Gongniang No 1 and Gongniang No 2, which were bred in Jilin in 1952 and 1961 respectively. Gongniang No 1 can survive winter temperatures as low as -22 ºC. The cold-resistant Beichun, Beihong, and Beimei varieties were bred in Beijing in 1954 by crossing muscat of hamburg with V. amurensis.
Later on, many institutes, such as the Shandong Grape Experiment Station, Yantai Winery (now Changyu), Zhengzhou Fruit Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Agriculture Sciences, and so on, successively bred such grape varieties as Meichun, Meiyu, Meinong, Hongzhilu (all of these four being Merlot×Petit Verdot crosses), Quanbai (Riesling×Petit Verdot), Quanyu (Riesling×Muscat of Hamburg), Yan 73, and Yan 74 (Alicante Bouchet×Muscat of Hamburg).
Most commercially cultivated wine grapes today are imported varieties. Since Changyu introduced 120 wine grape varieties from Germany, Austria, Spain, and Italy in 1892, this process has continued uninterrupted. During the 1950s and 1960s, the communist regime ensured that most imported varieties were from the Soviet bloc in Eastern Europe. Varieties such as rkatsiteli and saperavi are still found in vineyards today. The introduction of varieties from the US, Italy, and France began as recently as the 1970s. The 1980s saw massive imports from Europe by Great Wall Wine Company, China National Research Institute of Food and Fermentation Industries, Xinjiang Shanshan Wine Company, Tianjin Agricultural Reclamation Group, Qingdao Huadong Winery Co, Beijing Dragon Seal Winery Co, and so on. The huge wave of wine-industry development at the end of the 1990s encouraged imports of vine cuttings on an even bigger scale. However, the fanleaf viruses that came with them led the central government to impose tighter controls of imported vine cuttings, which this century are mainly grafted. Principal importers have been Domaine Franco-Chinois and Jianan Winery in Huailai, Hebei province; COFCO’s Chateau Junding in Penglai, Shandong province; and Ningxia Daylong Wine Company and Ningxia Development Bureau for Grape and Flower Industry in Ningxia province.
Red varieties dominate, representing 80% of the total. Of this 80%, Cabernet Sauvignon accounts for about 60% with Merlot and Cabernet Gernischt (carmenère) about 10% each. Other red wine grapes include Syrah/Shiraz, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir, Saperavi, Petit Verdot, Carignan, and a small percentage of the Chinese varieties mentioned above. There is interest in planting more marselan for its useful combination of yield and concentration of sugar and phenolics. Of white wine varieties, Chardonnay accounts for at least 70% of the total, followed by Riesling (principally welschriesling but also some true riesling), which represents about 10% plus Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains, Sauvignon Blanc, Rkatsiteli, Chenin Blanc, and Gewürztraminer. The old favourites Longyan and Muscat of Hamburg now account for less than 5% of all white wine made in China. There is interest in petit manseng for its sugar accumulation, high acidity and good resistance to major vine diseases. China’s first vine nursery was established in the north of the Shandong Peninsula in the early 2000s as a joint venture between COFCO and the French nursery Arrive. In 2011, Guillaume set up a nursery in Gansu, and in 2013 Mercier set up another in Ningxia.
China- Viticulture
In long-standing wine regions vineyard development and grape supply were major problems for the wine industry. Traditionally grapes were supplied on contract through collective agencies and grown on intensively subdivided lands. Individual farmers may work less than an acre each and are entitled to choose their own crop, often preferring the less viticulturally risky table grapes. China’s parallel systems of planned and market-driven economy and deep-rooted peasant traditions clearly hindered modernization. The traditional fan trellis system, dense foliage, excessive yields, heavy summer irrigation, peanut cover crops, early picking to avoid rot, and grape prices determined by weight alone are typical. Many vineyards planted in low-lying valleys alongside rice fields have high water-tables and a high risk of flooding.
The majority of the traditional vines are ungrafted, with no widespread phylloxera problem encountered to date. The strong summer rains, humidity levels over 85%, and typically dense canopy encourage many vine diseases. anthracnose, powdery mildew, downy mildew, dead arm, and white rot are commonplace, controlled by modern fungicides when available. bitter rot (Greeneria uvicola) is also a major problem, as a low level of infection affects the wine. Viticulturists still find it difficult to impose a proper spraying programme on farmers, and winemakers find it difficult to impose the right dates for harvest. With more and more wineries competing for grapes, and generally insufficient rewards to growers for waiting until full ripeness, grapes tend to arrive early and all at the same time, necessitating investment in extra press capacity at some wineries. With cheap and plentiful labour so far, all work is done manually with very limited mechanization. The low water-holding capacity and dry spring weather necessitate irrigation, controlled manually with pump and hose.
The most eye-catching development in recent years has been in China’s north west; particularly in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (which already had the largest vineyard area in China) and in the neighbouring provinces of Ningxia and Gansu. In these regions, most new wineries, founded after 2005, planted their own vineyards instead of buying grapes by contract.
Japan
Grape-growing and, to a lesser extent, wine production have a long history in this Far Eastern country, even though wine drinking on any appreciable scale is a relatively recent phenomenon. Between 1990 and 2012 wine consumption more than doubled but is still only 2.6 l per capita—low by European standards, but by far the highest in Asia. There are now more than 200 domestic wineries in all 47 prefectures and sales under domestic labels accounted for 32% of total wine sales in Japan in 2010.
Japan- History
Legend has it that grape-growing began at Katsunuma, in Yamanashi prefecture of central Honshu. As the story goes, in the year 718 the Buddha Nyorai passed vines to a holy man by the name of Gyoki, who planted the vines at Katsunuma, where he built the Daizenji Temple.
It was the grape itself, rather than wine, in which the Japanese were initially interested. The monks taught that grapes had medicinal value. The statue of Nyorai, which Gyoki had carved in his honour and which is still housed in the temple today, was named Budo Yakushi (budo meaning grape; and yakushi meaning teacher of medicine) by pilgrims to the temple.
Wine may, perhaps, have been made from local grapes in Katsunuma in earlier times but wine consumption in Japan had not been documented until the arrival of Portuguese missionaries in the 16th century. The Jesuit missionary St Francis Xavier carried wine as gifts for the feudal lords of Kyushu in southern Japan whom he visited in 1545. Others who followed him continued the practice so that the locals acquired a taste for wine and began to import it regularly.
They called the wine tintashu, combining the Japanese word for sake (shu) with a derivative of the Portuguese word for red (tinto).
During the Tokugawa shogunate of the 17th century, the missionaries were expelled, Christians persecuted, and practices associated with Christianity, such as drinking wine, condemned. Ironically, however, the choice of Edo as the Tokugawa capital (on the site of modern Tokyo) was a boost for the farmers of nearby Yamanashi: their grapes quickly came to be prized for the tables of the shogun’s court.
Eventually, in 1874, the first attempts at commercial winemaking were undertaken in Yamanashi, where grape-growing had begun over a millennium before. Three years later, in 1877, two disciples of the founder of one of the earliest commercial wineries visited France to study European viticulture and oenology. The early product was not good, but the effort was enough to convince local authorities to permit the import of European vinifera and american vines as the basis for a new industry.
Today, the viticultural industry is modest, but entrenched—and still focused mostly on producing table grapes, rather than on providing top-quality raw material for winemaking.
Japan- Geography and Climate
Three prefectures (Yamanashi, Nagano, and Yamagata) on the main island Honshu account for almost 40% of the 17,600 ha/43,564 acres (a little less than in the early years of the century) under vine throughout Japan.
Production is in the order of 198,300 tonnes of grapes per year, although only one-tenth of these grapes is used for winemaking. The bulk of the production is for the table, and the grape varieties under cultivation and viticultural practices reflect this.
Japan’s climate is not naturally suited to viticulture and successful grape-growing has always been a struggle.
In Yamanashi prefecture, where a quarter of Japan’s grapes are grown and where 58 wineries are located, a monsoonal climate presents a serious problem of excess water and humidity. Here, and in most of the prefectures of Honshu, vines traditionally have been trained on to overhead wires or platforms (budodana) so that the bunches will hang lower than the foliage and be more freely exposed to circulating air. This pergola method of cultivation, known in Japan as Tana-Shitate, was developed as a defence against fungal diseases and has been reasonably effective. vine density is notoriously low. There may be only 50–100 vines per hectare but other growers use training systems such as cordon de royat for European varieties, entailing much higher vine density.
Grapes from the district of Katsunuma, with about 15% of the prefecture’s vines, are those generally preferred by winemakers. Katsunuma fares considerably better climatically than districts lower down in the Kofu Basin. Rainfall is lower, it has better drainage because of its higher elevation, gets a refreshing breeze, which helps control rot and mildew, has a wider diurnal temperature variation (see temperature variability) and better ripening conditions for wine grapes generally.
Nagano and Yamagata, the prefectures where most of the recent growth in the industry has been concentrated, do better again but conditions are still far from ideal. Nagano had 26 wineries and Yamagata 11 in the mid 2010s.
In the 1960s, a second frontier of the modern Japanese industry was opened up in an even more unlikely location, in central Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island. This is an extremely cold environment for grape-growing. Average temperatures rise to only about 23 °C/73 °F in July, August, and the early part of September. By the end of September, average temperatures are about 15 °C and, by October, below 10 °C. Vineyards are covered in deep snow for most of the winter and vines are given winter protection by being buried in heaped soil to avoid damage. In Hokkaido, canes are trained low along horizontal wires, in contrast to the Tana-Shitate technique. This region is characterized by much lower summer rainfall than on Honshu with some new boutique wineries specializing in organic viticulture emerging in and around the developing area of Iwamizara.
Japanese vineyard soils are in general very acid see ph, soils.
Japan- Vine Varieties
History, the dominant demand for table grapes, and the climatic vagaries with which growers have had to contend over the years, have combined to result in the rather exotic range of grape varieties which form the basis of viticulture in Japan.
The most significant Japanese variety, and the undoubted sentimental favourite of the Japanese, is koshu. This is the descendant of the vines carried along the Silk Road to Japan 800 to 1,200 years ago and, in the public eye at least, is virtually synonymous with the industry of Katsunuma, which has over 90% of the total Koshu vineyard area.
Koshu has survived as an important variety because it has adapted to the difficult growing conditions in Yamanashi prefecture and because it is supported by long tradition.
A Koshu cousin, Ryugan (also known as Zenkoji, and probably distinct from the Longyan of china), is grown only in tiny quantities, chiefly in Nagano prefecture in central Honshu. As with Koshu, Neo-Muscat and Ryugan produce grapes which are best suited to the table, but which are also made into light and generally sweetish wine.
However, the vines which are by far the most widely planted throughout Japan, accounting for almost 90% of the total area under vine, are hybrids based on Vitis labrusca, most of which were introduced directly from the US.
They have generally performed well in the difficult local growing conditions and, most importantly, have provided the best commercial results for growers attuned primarily to the table-grape market. In particular, as the highest prices are attracted by the first fruit onto the market each season, the fact that many of them are early-ripening varieties has been very attractive to growers.
Kyoho, a local hybrid of the American variety concord, is now the most widely grown in Japan, comprising 35% of the vineyard area.
delaware follows with 20%. Campbell Early was once a clear second, but is now fourth. Kyoho has been further bred to produce a rash of minor varieties aimed at achieving better-quality table grapes, including Pione (possibly identical to Thailand’s pokdum), which is now the third ranked variety and produces quite creditable varietal rosé. Another popular hybrid is Muscat Bailey A, planted on more than 450 ha/1,110 acres and gaining in popularity as a wine grape. It makes fresh, fruity, light-bodied wine although oaked versions are not unknown.
All of these varieties actually find their way into wine, even though the vines were not bred originally, nor are grown specifically in modern Japan, for this purpose. Grapes which for some reason fail to satisfy requirements as table grapes, or those which ripen late in the season, often end up at the wineries, providing the domestic component of many of the lower priced local labels.
Japan- Industry Organisation
Japan’s first (and much-vaunted in Europe) ‘wine boom’ saw per capita consumption double during the 1980s, albeit from a low base. Consumption levelled off towards the end of the decade but a second wine boom quickly gathered momentum around 1993, when a strong yen encouraged a surge in imports.
Initially they had focused on investment in modern winemaking equipment and on training their winemakers in the methods used in the major wine-producing nations (Suntory even went so far as to buy the st-julien classed growth Ch Lagrange, and the 1980s saw several substantial Japanese investments in the German, California, and Australian wine industries). They had hoped that this, along with various practices in the winery aimed at extracting more flavour and body from the flimsy local fruit base, would be sufficient to match the competition from the foreign producers whose attention to the Japanese market had been attracted by its rapid growth, by the potential associated with 128 million affluent people, by favourable exchange rates, and by the relaxation of import barriers.
The domestic industry has also tried to hold its ground by using imported bulk wine, grape concentrate, must, and even imported grapes to extend the quantity and improve the quality of its own base material. Labelling laws have allowed considerable leeway for producers in this regard and some wines sold under domestic brands are known to contain the barest minimum of genuine domestic material. Although the market share of domestic labels has fallen from 75% in 1982 to 35% in 2010, four in every five of these domestic bottlings contain wine made by using imported bulk wine and/or grape concentrate. Some leading winemaking prefectures impose their own labelling regulations to satisfy customers’ demands for authenticity of domestic wine, however. Since the National Tax Agency designated Yamanashi as a geographical indication, all wines so labelled must be made from 100% Yamanashi grapes. Wine must be made from 100% Koshu to be labelled Koshu. Nagano prefecture east of Yamanashi established their own strict NAC regulations (Nagano Appellation Controlee) in 2003, before Yamanashi.
But the structure of the industry militates against rapid progress. The average vineyard size is less than 0.5 ha/1.2 acres.
Price maximization is essential to maintain a viable income for small grape-growers and when table grapes can command a price four or five times the price winemakers are prepared to pay, it is hard to imagine that the bulk of the existing growers will change their ways. Vineyards dedicated solely to producing wine grapes are the answer but there are still too few of them.
The large domestic wine producers rely overwhelmingly on bought-in grapes. Most of them also have vineyards, but these are small and primarily for experimental purposes. Some of the giants also focus on quality and play a leading role in clonal selection and research into other techniques best suited to the climate, soil type, and elevation in Japan.
Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc have been planted in the west of Yamanashi prefecture with some reasonable results; Chardonnay, Petit Verdot, and Merlot look fairly well suited to Nagano; and northern European varieties such as Müller-Thurgau, Zweigelt, and particularly Kerner, have done well in Hokkaido. Yet European varieties comprised little more than 1% of the total area under vine in the mid 2000s and, with the exception of a few hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon, almost all have been planted since the 1970s.
In contrast to the fragmentation of the grape-growing industry, winemaking is extraordinarily concentrated.
Five giant, diversified beverage conglomerates—Mercian, Suntory, Asahi (Ste Neige), Sapporo (Polaire), and Kikkoman soy sauce maker subsidiary Manns Wine (Solaris, Manns)—account for more than 80% of the total sales of domestic wine (including locally bottled imported bulk wines and blends). But some of the best wines in Japan are made by much smaller family-owned or city-owned wineries. In Hokkaido, new wineries such as Taru and Domaine Takahiko have emerged following the success of Tokachi winery. In Yamanashi, benchmark Koshu is produced by Marufuji (Rubaiyat label), Katsunuma (Aruga Branca), and Grace wineries. Other small wineries with a reputation for quality include L’Atelier de Beau Paysage, Kanai Jozojo, Kizan Yoshu-Kogyo (in Yamanashi prefecture) and Hayashi Noen, Izutsu, Obuse Domaine Sogga, and Kido (all in Nagano prefecture), Takeda (Yamagata), Okuizumo (Shimane), Coco Farm (Tochigi), Kuzumaki specializing in yamabudo varieties and hybrids (Iwate), Kumamoto specializing in Chardonnay and Tsuno (the southernmost winery in Japan, in Miyazaki prefecture).
Asia
Until the 1990s it was assumed—quite wrongly as it turned out—that this most populous of continents would never play an important role in the world of wine. There was something in the physical make-up of most Asians, it was thought by those in the continent which produces the lion’s share of all wine, that made them prefer either non-alcoholic or grain-based drinks. This assumption was rapidly disproved in the mid to late 1990s when the world’s auction prices were inflated at an unprecedented rate thanks largely to sudden interest from buyers in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. Thanks to a boom in the so-called tiger economies, and the much-vaunted health benefits claimed for red wine, wine-drinking changed from bizarre foreign practice to status symbol in a remarkably short time in countries as varied as Thailand, Taiwan, India, Korea, and—the country with the greatest potential as both consumer and producer—China. Wine-drinking had already infiltrated Japan, and several other Asian countries have embarked on their own domestic wine industries, often based on table grapes initially, and sometimes bolstered by imported bulk wine, since the early 1990s. For details of individual countries, see bhutan, Cambodia, china, Hong Kong, india, indonesia, japan, Korea, myanmar, nepal, sri lanka, taiwan, thailand, and vietnam. See also the ex-Soviet Central Asian republics of azerbaijan, kazakhstan, kyrgyzstan, tajikistan, turkmenistan, and uzbekistan. Countries such as afghanistan, iraq, iran, jordan, pakistan, syria, and Yemen devote most of their vineyards to the production of drying grapes but israel, lebanon, and turkey all have flourishing wine industries.
Japan- Viticulture
Viticulture in Japan has many disadvantages. Firstly, and most seriously, it is high humidity during growing season. Because we have a lot of rain in July (flowering season) and September (just before harvesting), many disease problems occur. Especially, European varieties, which usually have thin skins and relatively small berries, are less resistant to powdery and downy mildews and bunch rot. Secondly, as soils tend to be acidic, soil amelioration is necessary. Finally, as each vineyard is small (average size of vineyard in Yamanashi is less than 1 ha/grower) and located on the steps, vineyard mechanization is difficult. Therefore growing good grapes in Japan is very labor intensive.
How long has Koshu been made in Yamanashi in Japan?
For many centuries.
