Located at the same latitude as Bordeaux, France, Yantai is the birthplace of China’s modern wine industry. With excellent conditions of soil, temperature, precipitation, and illumination, Yantai is one of the best areas for grape and wine production.
Awarded as the only International Vine and Wine City in Asia by the International Organization of Vine and Wine, Yantai is the hometown of grape wine. The famous Changyu Grape Wine was first produced here. Yantai Changyu Wine Culture Museum is well worth visiting, where you can see the oldest grape wine cellar in China.
Yantai Changyu Wine Culture Museum, built in 1992, is located at 56 Dama Road, Zhifu District, Yantai of Shandong Province. Changyu is the largest wine brewing company in China. Its Changyu Brandy won the Golden Award at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
The museum consists of two major parts, the underground cellar and the exhibition hall. The underground cellar, covering an area of 2,666 square meters, is the oldest one in China. With a depth of 7 meters, it maintains the constant temperature of 12-14 degrees centigrade all year round. It is reputed as a miracle of world architecture history.
Brewery workshop is located in No.7 hole of the cellar, where you may manually carry out the whole brewing processes of bottle filling, stopper pressing, labeling, signing and packing. The underground bar is set in No. 5 hole of the cellar, where you can have a taste of Changyu Wine.
The steps to taste wine: first, check the color; second, smell the fragrance; third, taste the flavor. And the best temperature for wine tasting is: dry white wine 8-10℃; half dry white wine 8-12℃; half sweet and sweet wine 10-12℃; dry red wine 16-22℃; half dry red wine 16-18℃; brandy below 15℃; froth wine below 10℃.
