Ningxia Region Of Climbing Chinese Wine: How Far Is It From Good To Good?

Due to the epidemic situation, the second China (Chongqing) International Wine Expo and China liquor marketing digital summit were postponed from the beginning of the year to the opening in winter.

However, under the organization of the grape and Wine Association, dozens of wineries such as Huida winery and Roland Margo winery have come to hongsipao production area in Wuzhong City of Ningxia with their housekeeping products. Many of them have won the major wine awards both at home and abroad. On December 11, 2020, on the second day of the opening ceremony, hongsipao production area held a grand promotion exhibition in Chongqing.

At the promotion meeting that evening, Zheng Xiaoping, Secretary General of Chongqing liquor circulation chamber of Commerce, made a long speech. For the first time, he was moved by a wine producing area that took the initiative and was determined to participate in the Chongqing wine exhibition. Ye Xingyang, President of Chongqing liquor distribution chamber of Commerce, refused his family's wish to spend his birthday with him, and spent the night drunk with the owners of hongsipao

Hongsipao Town, Wuzhong City, Ningxia, was awarded the title of "the first wine town in China" by China business enterprise management association. Led by Zhang Baoqi, vice governor of hongsipao district government, the wine producing area has become the largest grape exhibition area led by the government and actively participated by enterprises at the Chongqing wine show.

Ye Xiaoming, President of hongsipao grape and Wine Association, said that the association would also cooperate with Chongqing liquor circulation chamber of Commerce to open wine experience stores and flagship stores in hongsipao production area in Chongqing, so as to bring Chongqing citizens high-quality and cheap wine.

"Why is it difficult to sell? Because a promotion meeting organized by the government or the association is over. Now we have to arrange someone to be there. Over the years, a lot of wine in our production area can't be sold, which has a lot to do with the previous promotion methods! " At the end of last year, the relevant person in charge of Wuzhong agricultural and rural Bureau told reporters of the 21st century economic report.

"Chinese wine has ushered in a historic strategic opportunity." A month ago, at the G50 summit of China Wine Fair and global wine held in Hangzhou, Wang Dehui, a well-known wine marketing expert, said that under the influence of complicated international relations and international situation this year, imported wine has been greatly impacted by factors such as relations between countries, tariff and exchange rate. In his opinion, the domestic circulation has greatly promoted domestic products.

"According to the general industrial law, the main grape producing countries in the world mainly consume their own wine. It is not a normal phenomenon that Chinese imported liquor exceeds domestic liquor. " Zhang Yanzhi, who invested in Ningxia to sell Xige wine, also told reporters of the 21st century economic report.

Compared with the decline of liquor production capacity, the wine industry is in the stage of expansion and growth. In the development opportunities of Chinese wine, the era of regional competition has come.

"In fact, the pattern of international production areas has been basically determined. If there is no accident in domestic production areas, Ningxia will definitely be the first production area." Wang Dehui said that the eastern foot of Helan Mountain in Ningxia is recognized as the "golden zone" for wine grape production in the world. At present, it has the largest wine grape planting area and winery wine production area in China.

But how can Ningxia wine, which has won prizes and won soft hands at home and abroad, be able to recover the confidence of Chinese consumption from being well received to being popular?

China's wine producing area competition era has come. IC photo

Famous Ningxia wine

One morning in September last year, although he had a lot of wine with Zhang Yanzhi, the owner of Xige winery, Li Demi, a wine expert, got up at 6 o'clock as usual and went to the garden to see the grapes after breakfast.

He went to the West pigeon vineyard in pigeon mountain of Wuzhong City, Ningxia, on the sunny slope on the left. There is a grape variety, martellan, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.

"This year's matherland is doing well and will be a great variety." When he came back, he told the 21st century economic reporter that it was bright in color and had a fresh fruit flavor. The flavor is very suitable for China's consumer market. This year, matherland is also very mature here.

Recently, the wine advocate, founded by Robert Parker, launched the first Chinese wine album, scoring 112 wines from 16 Chinese wineries. Among the 9 wines with the highest score of 94, three of the 9 wines from the eastern foot of Helan Mountain, including Xige (2017).

Xige winery has 15000 mu of vines at the foot of pigeon mountain. In the round chateau, guests can see the vineyard extending into the distance from the balcony of any guest room, standing under the leaves of wind power generation.

September is just the season for grape ripening and picking, and also the time for winemakers to begin to embody the art of brewing.

Li Demi flies from Beijing several times a year to teach students. In his opinion, it runs through the whole process of wine making and is a good place for wine training. The restaurant is on the second floor of the winery, where guests are served with buffet. After delicious food, a roll of tablecloth can immediately become a classroom. September. Supported by Ningxia Wine Bureau, the first master class of Helan east foot Wine Education College opened. He and the teacher of Ningxia University jointly teach grape cultivation and grape wine making technology. After studying here for a period of time, the students will go to France and New Zealand for further study.

Here just finished is the mixing test, four wine samples are given to students, let them design their own wine body, number and score, blind evaluation. The 21st century economic report reporter saw that many of the trainees who participated in the examination were engaged in management or brand sales, not technicians.

"No matter which position you are engaged in, you should understand wine." Li Demi said.

Drive away from Xige winery, less than half an hour into Qingtongxia City along the mountain road. The Chateau vegani on the road is famous. The main product of this winery is Nanshan Earl dry red wine, which is sold for 698 yuan a piece, mainly sold in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Fujian.

Duan Chengchun, vice president of winemaker, told the 21st century economic report that last year, the average market price of wine grapes in Ningxia was 4-5 yuan / kg, but that of his family was as high as 16 yuan / kg. "My grapes are all reserved before August, and the buyer has to pay a 40% deposit in advance." He said.

What grape is so expensive?

After several hours of introduction to the wine making process, 21st century business reporter entered the 500 mu garden of vigani, and it was already dark, but in the afterglow, he could still distinguish the difference between Cabernet Sauvignon and other places. The leaves are small and many. The purple black fruit is only the size of a pearl. It's hard to pull one and put it into the mouth. The skin is thick and sweet.

"Our production is very low. The reason why the fruit is small is because of the control of yield, water and fertilizer Duan Chengchun explained that they introduced drip irrigation, which was particularly harsh on water control. Don't pick the heart of the main shoot before flowering, let it fruit naturally. After fruit setting, irrigation only maintains the life of the grape tree, so it grows slowly and the fruit grains are small. The number of leaves is large, and it is not pruned at the later stage.

"In this way, less flesh, less juice, more flavor substances on the peel, which is good for farmers to increase their income." Duan Changchun said.

According to him, in Ningxia, the average farmer produces 700-800 kilograms of grapes per mu, and the planting cost is more than 2000 yuan per mu. However, the yield of weijiani is only 600 kg per mu, and the cost is between 2300 and 2500 yuan. Among them, the labor cost alone is as high as 1500 yuan / mu. "In the middle and late stage, the old leaves must be picked for each string, and the picking is done manually. It takes half of the labor cost to crush, excavate and spread branches under light. " He said.

After more than a year of aging, vigani's wine needs to be bottled for half a year to two years. "We're only selling 2015 wines now." Duan Chengchun said.

"The domestic wine market is too difficult to promote, and its recognition and influence are limited. We have technical advantages in planting, so we should strengthen our efforts in good raw materials and technology. In the future, we will not do scale, and the goal is to get closer to foreign famous shops. " Duan said his wine aimed at people who drank Lafite and planned to take 5-6 years to catch up with the quality as much as possible.

In 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, VIVIANI won the gold medal in the Berlin wine competition in Germany and won the grand gold award in the Brussels competition.

In Mo Yue Hennessy xiatong (Ningxia) Winery Co., Ltd., which is also located in Qingtongxia City, the staff told the 21st century economic reporter that this is the alluvial plain of Helan Mountain. The closer you get to the mountain, the bigger the stone will be. When you go to the winery, there will be gravel and sand. "Organic matter is low, and when the winery was first built, the soil here was poorer than that in France." He said that a large amount of organic manure such as sheep manure and cow dung is cooked and applied in the field without chemical fertilizer.

At the end of December last year, news came from Ningxia science and technology department that after four years of research, the key research and development project of Ningxia key research and development plan "key technology research on characteristic and high quality grapes and wine production in Eastern Helan Mountain" jointly completed by 12 units passed the acceptance, forming 43 intellectual property rights such as soil ecological regulation, wine production technology and traceability system, and relevant standards and technical regulations were formulated Item.

According to incomplete statistics, thousands of wines have won prizes in international competitions in the eastern foot of Helan, Ningxia.

Enterprise market economy

No matter how good the wine is, it is the real skill to sell it.

The difficulty of financing and sales once troubled Ningxia wine producing areas.

Wine is a long-term industry. In the process of development, it is because of the poor market that the government has adjusted many times in the development of production areas.

In fact, the development history of Ningxia wine industry has only a few decades.

According to the person in charge of Wuzhong agricultural and rural Bureau, Ningxia began to develop the wine industry since 1988. Xixiawang, Yuma winery and great wall were the first batch of wine enterprises to settle in. However, in the following 20 years, there was no standardized development in this area.

It is from 2008 to now that Ningxia really planted grapes in large area, which ushered in the stage of the greatest influence and rapid development of planting area.

According to official data, at present, 570000 mu of grapes are planted in Ningxia, with an output value of about 50 billion yuan. According to the 14th five year plan, by 2025, the grape planting area in Ningxia will reach 1 million mu, and the output value of wine and related industries will reach 100 billion yuan. Wine has become the first key industry in Ningxia under the attention of the Autonomous Region Committee and government. Among them, the planting area of Wuzhong City accounts for about half of the whole district.

According to people familiar with the matter, Ningxia's wine industry has experienced the era of small wineries and big wineries. "Now, the size of grape planting area invested by enterprises has not been raised by many people. It is up to the market to decide." Relevant people said.

At that time, the change in development ideas was related to the failure to sell wine. According to people familiar with the matter, during the period of the grand winery, the price of wine in the winery was hundreds and thousands of yuan high. If the market is not good, the capital of the enterprise will not be able to turn around, the output will not go up, and the quality will also be affected.

Many of those who invest a lot in winery wine are the "new third board" cross-border companies, mainly coal owners, oil owners and real estate owners. As a result, some of them entered the "big black hole" with the mentality of getting rich overnight.

From large wineries to factories, it is hoped that the price of mass-produced liquor will come down and be accepted by more consumers.

Unexpectedly, on the way to develop the market, an epidemic situation aggravated the sales dilemma of many enterprises in Ningxia production area.

Before and after the Spring Festival last year, many wineries in Ningxia just sent out orders and sales had not started, and the epidemic broke out. Duan Chengchun told the 21st century economic report that from January to September last year, VIVIANI sold one third of the annual plan. According to the person in charge of Wuzhong agriculture and rural Bureau, in 2019, the sales volume of wine in Wuzhong from January to August will be 2.77 million bottles, but only 690000 bottles in the same period last year.

Ningxia wine enterprises have to speed up the road of self-help in the market.

Duan Chengchun said that now Ningxia is promoting the integration of wine and tourism. He wants to plant flowers and trees, build B & B, and invite tourists in. I tried it this year, and the effect was good. 55% of the tourists who came in bought wine.

Next, Duan Chengchun is going to recruit a manor to sell the land-use right of one mu, three mu and five mu, which will be managed by the winery and responsible for wine making. The owner can come to Ningxia for free once a year. He also orchestrated the home brew experience for wine lovers, making the Vineyard a paradise for consumers.

At Chateau Chateau chateau, two wines with swimming circle models have attracted the attention of 21st century economic reporters. According to the staff, this is Hennessy's "Xia Tongxi" red wine to cater to the Chinese market. "Drinking wine requires consumption scenarios. Think about a glass of sparkling wine on a hot beach or swimming pool? " Staff said that ordinary consumers just started dry red, dry white may not be acceptable, but sweet taste is often easy to drink.

In Yinchuan, Feng Qing, chairman of Renshou winery, owns six wine studios. From the morning to the evening, the live broadcast lasts 24 hours. E-commerce sales, represented by live broadcast channels, account for half of the first-class sales. Another 25% of the sales are from dealers in other parts of the country, and 25% are locally digested.

"The proportion of online sales is growing. Online, manufacturers need to contact consumers directly. You respect the consumer, and he pays. Respect the dealer, he will purchase. Dealers are concerned about whether they can make money and whether the goods are good. There is still a gap between them and consumers. " Feng Qing told the 21st century economic reporter in his office.

According to his calculation, online consumers often stay in shops for three seconds. If the product can't leave an impression, people will leave. He has a book that records the number of people entering the store every day, the length of stay, and the sales conversion rate per day. The return rate is also very important. If it is high, it means that the brand strength is improving, otherwise it is declining.

It is precisely because they have moved their business online. From January to July of last year, the first time they lost 20% of their turnover due to the impact of the epidemic. From August to December, sales increased a lot compared with the same period last year.

With the help of cross-border marketing, Xige winery has become the "net red" in Ningxia winery. From April to may last year, the contract amount of Xige winery reached 299 million yuan. In July, the winery and Minsheng Bank signed a cooperation agreement of tens of millions of yuan. In October, the whole barrel price of "X" Pinot Noir in 2018 was sold for 800000 yuan.

"Ningxia wine must be grounded! Not all products are high-end. The direction of winning awards in the early stage is right, but the next subject is to do marketing. " Feng Qing said.