Chinese commercial wine production began in 1892 when an overseas Chinese diplomat, Zhang Bishi, started his winery in Yantai. He imported half a million plants from the USA and appointed the Austrian consul, Freiherr von Babo, as his winemaker. Most of the plants failed to survive and history does not recount whether von Babo knew how to make wine, but nevertheless today the company is by far the biggest in the country, with a turnover of nearly US$900 million.

Château Changyu (or, to give it its full name, Changyu Pioneer Wine Company) is China’s oldest and largest wine producer, and among the top ten in the world in terms. The company has embarked on an extraordinary program of building European-style châteaux, architecturally based on examples from Bordeaux and two of them are represented by Ch. Changyu Longyu in Ningxia (Yinchuan province).

Fresh and bright in color, nose with elegent fruity aroma of mature raspberry, rich
fragrance of currant and blackberry. Also red fruits along with oak hints and dried herbs.
Pronounced fruity, floral and delicate spicy aromas. It is round and smooth in mouth with long finish, acting
elegantly as a fullbodied wine with silky and smooth tannin.