Wine Culture

                        History of Chinese Wine
                        Evidence shows that it was in HAN dynasty (206 B.C.)
                        that ancient Chinese began to grow grapes and make wines.
                        Wine was firstly recorded in the book of “SHI JI” (
                        which means historic record ) written by Si Maqian. 138
                        B.C. the emperor sent Zhangqian to Western Regions for a
                        diplomatic mission, he was surprised to see people there
                        make wine from grapes and rich people stocked wines.
                        Because Western Regions is part of ancient China, this
                        record shows that people in HAN dynasty had learned how
                        to grow grapes and make wine from our neighboring
                        countries. The book “EXCAVATION DISCOVERY IN TULUFAN”
                        records how people in TULUFAN grow grapes and do wine
                        business in 4-8 century. It also shows that wines were
                        made in large quantity at this period of time. After
                        Zhangqian came back from West Regions, he introduced
                        grape growing and winemaking skills to the central
                        China. Wine soon became precious products for up class
                        people. There is an interesting story in HAN dynasty
                        which tells how Meng Boliang, a rich person was given a
                        position of provincial governor by bribing a minister
                        with a bottle of wine. Su Shi, a famous Chinese poet
                        said in his poem that some generals with medals were not
                        given a position, how can a bottle of wine make a
                        ordinary person to be a governor. This is the charm of
                        wine.
                        TANG dynasty is a golden age of winemaking history,
                        because winemaking skills were known by ordinary people
                        at this time. Many poems were written by famous poets to
                        praise wines. When girls got married, Wines were part of
                        presents to their husbands. HU minority people opened
                        wine shops in capital city Changan to sell wines from
                        Western Regions.
                        Large quantity of wine products were sold on the market
                        in YUAN dynasty. “MACO POLO TRAVELOGUE” said that there
                        were many vineyards in Taiyuan of Shanxi province.
                        People made a lot of wines and sent them to different
                        places to sell. A poem popular at that time said that I
                        am from Shanxi, I grow grape like jade, then make it
                        into wine, to quench people thirst. It shows that local
                        people took grape growing and winemaking as something
                        great that they were proud of. The rulers of YUAN
                        dynasty loved wines and they ordered that wines must be
                        used for sacrifice ceremony. Good vineyards were built
                        in Taiyuan of Shanxi and Nanjing of Jiangsu. Some wine
                        cellars were built in imperial palace.
                        In MING dynasty, famous doctor Li Shizhen mentioned
                        winemaking skills and wine medical value in his book
                        “PEN-TS’AO KAN-MU”. He said that wine is good for
                        people’s health and skin. “NONG ZHENG QUAN SHU”, a book
                        about agriculture written by Xu Guangqi, recorded some
                        grape varieties people grew at that time which are:
                        crystal grape (brown with white tinge, big berry and
                        sweet), purple grape ( black, big or small, sweet or
                        sour), green grape ( grown in Sichuan, look like rabbit
                        eyes, sweeter than honey), Suosuo grape ( small like
                        pepper).