Prior to last week, I’d never hear of Ningxia and I couldn’t fathom that >80% of Chinese wine consumption was grown domestically. Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised.
What is surprising is the history of Ningxia’s rise: Ningxia is a small autonomous region in the center of the country, a remote and rural region whose heyday ended with the historical Silk Road’s. Ningxia’s population is comprised primarily of relatively uneducated, impoverished non-Mandarin speakers - many are ethnic minorities, in contrast to China’s Han-dominated East.
Starting in the early 2000’s, the Chinese government began laying the longterm groundwork for Ningxia. While all wine regions origin stories have some regulatory component, Ningxia’s is an especially unusual example: the Chinese government’s overarching intent was, in the span of decades, to create a world class wine region and provide opportunities and growth for a rural population. The government has been a central force in architecting Ningxia’s burgeoning wine industry; soliciting investment and partnerships with French, Austrian and European backers; building a local tourism industry; courting internationally renowned critics and marketing channels; and even in running and operationalizing new vineyards. Many vineyards are government owned, although private vineyards also exist.
As such, vineyards may produce good wine, but unlike many western winemakers, do not emphasize a long ‘history’ or ‘family legacy’ or the agency and creativity of individuals. Winemakers are not universally judged by their quality - rather, quality is “balanced against societal considerations”. And yet, Chinese wines continue to gain global recognition and acceptance.
But the jury is still out: can a government buy and essentially mandate the creation of a world-class global wine industry and culture? Can these things be ‘bought’ and developed, or is there something more fundamental and intrinsic about wine cultivation that must come from the people of the region themselves?
It’s a different ethos and a fascinating history. For further reading:
During our midterm research we saw lots of the same dynamics happening in the Shandong region of China - although private investment and even international investment were also a part of the funding working to prop up this new region. It is an interesting experiment to compare Ningxia, Shandong, and the rest of the emerging wine regions to see how possible this mandated growth actually results in anything lasting. One question I've been wondering about this given the current economic decline China is facing is whether this will incentivize the government to investment more in domestic wine production or to shift focus away from "luxury" consumables and allow more imported wine to play a role in its economic recovery as it focuses more on other industries.
ReplyDeleteI commented on another post about the "authenticity" of family held wineries, and how much of a true price increase that story justifies. In the end, I come down on the side of taste and quality being the most important factor in costs and this may actually end up being an equalizing force. In the end, I think the lesson may be that signals of quality are missing in this industry, and the roles of critics and critic-like sites actually need to increase.