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).