China

The government channel of China Daily profiles Yantai Changyu Winery, founded in 1892 by the overseas Chinese entrepreneur Zhang Bishi (1841–1916), as China's first industrialised wine company. The OIV records a rapid expansion of the national vineyard from 300,000 ha in 2000 to 770,000 ha in 2015, after which it stabilised at about 753,000 ha in 2024; the figure includes table and dried grapes. Ningxia produced its first bottle of wine in 1984, according to Xinhua.

The four Chinese wine GIs in the EU register were protected through the EU–China agreement on geographical indications, published in the EU Official Journal on 4 December 2020; the register gives 3 June 2017 as their protection date. Production has fallen in recent years: the OIV puts it at 7.8 million hl in 2019 and 2.6 million hl in 2024, 17% less than in 2023.

This atlas has opened detailed terroir evidence only for Ningxia, so it gives no national climate or soil summary. In Ningxia's Helan Mountain foothills, a 2024 study describes an arid, temperate strip at about 1,100 m between the mountains' alluvial fans and the Yellow River plain, with scant rain, strong sunshine and wide day-night ranges, irrigated from the Yellow River; winters are severe enough that vines are buried each year. The other EU-protected names, Yantai, Huanren and Shacheng, have their own specifications, which were not opened. The OIV's national vineyard figure mixes wine, table and dried grapes and says nothing about where wine grapes grow.

Claims about character in the sources opened are regional. Xinhua presents Ningxia's dry climate and abundant sunshine near the 38th parallel as an ideal terroir for wine grapes, and the Frontiers authors call the Helan Mountain foothills one of China's premier ecological locales for wine-grape growing. The EU register records each of the four GIs as a protected name for wine, which under EU rules implies a link between product and place, but their single documents were not read. No national style is described here.

The EU register lists four Chinese wine PGIs, protected through the EU–China agreement (Official Journal L 408I, 4 December 2020): 贺兰山东麓葡萄酒 (Helanshan Dong Lu Pu Tao Jiu, Helan Mountain East Foothills wine), 烟台葡萄酒 (Yantai Pu Tao Jiu), 桓仁冰酒 (Huanren Bing Jiu, Huanren ice wine) and 沙城葡萄酒 (Shacheng Pu Tao Jiu). China's own GI registers were not opened for this atlas, so national rules on origin claims are not given.

Xinhua calls Ningxia China's largest wine-producing region, with 602,000 mu (about 40,133 ha) of grape plantations and 261 wineries and grape-growing enterprises, which made 140 million bottles in 2023. No national grape-variety statistics were opened.