It was not an obvious place to put a vineyard. The ground was barren and stony. In winter, temperatures could drop below freezing and the wind blew cold and hard.
In October 2000, however, Nicolas Billot-Grima decided to build a winery, far from his native Bordeaux, within sight of the Great Wall of China, 69km northwest of Beijing.
"The field was totally no man's land," Billot-Grima said. "It was nothing. It was rocks. And the idea is to do something where no farmer will use this unfertile land."
Despite the harsh weather and terrain, Billot-Grima, whose family has produced wine for six generations in southwest France, decided he had found his terroir -- the blend of earth and climate that winemakers seek to give vintages a unique character.
Here, he would embark on an ambitious experiment to produce wines of high quality in the French tradition. He would join a small number of winemakers trying to turn China into a respected wine producer, alongside other non-European producers like the US, Chile, Australia and New Zealand, with the capacity to export and to meet the needs of a more demanding domestic market.
In recent years, newly affluent Chinese professionals have been abandoning beer and potent local spirits for the refined taste and image of grape wine, in contrast to the relative decline in wine consumption in some parts of the developed world that has led to a global oversupply.
Wine consumption in China, including Hong Kong, has been forecast to grow 78 percent in the 10 years to 2009, according to a study by The International Wine and Spirit Record in London. This means Chinese wine consumption will grow more than seven times the forecast average for the rest of the world.
By 2009, the Chinese are expected to drink 766 million bottles of wine, up from 500 million in 2004.
With 95 percent of sales going to domestic brands like the top sellers Great Wall, Dynasty and Dragon Seal, Chinese wine production is increasing to meet the new demand. According to The Record, Chinese output is on target to grow by 50 million liters to 420 million liters from 2004 to 2010.
The increase comes as subsidized European winemakers are under pressure to cut production. While winemakers in Europe are being asked to produce less and focus on quality and competitiveness, the challenge in China is to make a giant leap in standards.
Most Chinese wines are barely palatable to anyone accustomed to wines from Europe and other well-established producing regions.
In November, the magazine Wine Spectator found at a tasting of typical Chinese wine that "both reds and whites were achingly sweet, tended to be high in alcohol and resembled vermouth or sherry, with flavors of raisins, toasted nuts, orange peel and hard candy."
But a new breed of winemaker in China, backed by foreign investment and technical advice, is trying to change that reputation.
The aim is to keep pace with the evolving tastes of more widely traveled and sophisticated Chinese and to compete with other wine-producing nations, which see China as a rising and potentially huge market.
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