Discovering Grapes and Wine in the Far North of China

In early September, 2003 we [Tom Plocher, Gordon Rouse, and Mark Hart] traveled around the grape regions of northern China for seven days. Our travels covered the Yellow River grape region of Inner Mongolia, as well as Heilongjiang and Jilin Provinces in the extreme northeast of China (formerly known as Manchuria). Our goal was to exchange information and research findings on cold hardiness and on cultural methods that foster winter survival and early ripening.

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Photolog

The trip was sponsored by the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service and the Minnesota Grape Growers Association.

Return to Northern China - May, 2004

In May, 2004, Gordon and Tom returned to northern China. They met with four generations of grape breeders who spanned 50 years of breeding work at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. In Inner Mongolia, they met Prof. Lin Shouren, a breeder of cold hardy grapes and a man on a mission to change how grapes are grown in this province of cold and snowless winters. In this article you can read about these fascinating people of Chinese viticulture, the northern
varieties and viticultural techniques they have developed, and the state of northern Chinese winemaking. A photolog will follow when Tom gets time to scan in the pictures!

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