China News Agency, Urumqi, October 8th (Hu Jiachen) Xinjiang is known as the "Hometown of Melons and Fruits."
In the golden autumn season, in the vineyards in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains, the green or purple grapes are as crystal clear as pearls.
As one of the major wine grape growing regions in China, Xinjiang is "brewing" a core high-end wine production area through top-level layout and policy support.
Xinjiang has a long history of grape cultivation.
In 2003, archaeologists discovered a vine in the Yanghai Cemetery in Turpan, Xinjiang, about 2500 years ago.
In addition, Xinjiang has long sunshine hours, large temperature differences between day and night, and a dry climate; irrigated soil, aeolian sandy soil, and improved desert soil have good soil permeability.
These conditions are in line with the requirements of the growing environment for grapes.
In addition to the quality and efficiency improvement projects implemented in Xinjiang in recent years, the variety and quality of grapes have been further developed.
"Xinjiang, as one of the earliest grape-growing regions and the birthplace of wine in my country, has unique natural conditions, high-quality wine grapes, rich resource advantages and a sound development foundation." Zhang Shuo, member of the Party Leadership Group and Deputy Director of the Department of Commerce of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region The introduction said.
The reporter learned that Turpan had previously relied on table grapes and raisins to "break the market", but the added value of its products was low.
In recent years, the local area has optimized its industrial structure and formed a strategy of one-third of fresh food, one-third of dried food, and one-third of winemaking.
As a result, investors in the wine industry can harvest high-quality raw materials, and grape growers can obtain higher returns.
This kind of win-win model makes Xinjiang a hot spot for investment in the wine industry.
Public data shows that as of the end of 2020, Xinjiang's wine grape planting area has grown to 330,000 mu, ranking second in China; wine grape production exceeds 210,000 tons, ranking first in China.
There are currently 134 wineries in Xinjiang, gradually forming four major wine-producing regions at the northern foot of the Tianshan Mountains, the Ili River Valley, the Yanqi Basin, and the Turpan-Hami Basin.
"'Seven points for planting and three points for brewing" is a consensus in the wine industry, so we have paid a huge amount of work to achieve scientific planting." Chen Lizhong went to the Yanqi Basin to develop the wine industry in 2008, and she established Xinjiang Tiansai Wine Zhuang turned the 2,800 acres of Gobi into a "grape oasis" and carried out scientific planting management.
The reporter saw in the winery that each row of grape racks has a uniform row and plant spacing, and a mark is printed on the head of the grape racks to indicate the depth of vine landfill.
According to Chen Lizhong, the second phase of his winery is under construction as a cultural tourism town.
"The integration of the winery into the tourism industry is good for stimulating the local tourism industry and the winery's own development, and it can also provide more jobs."
The reporter found that Xinjiang wineries have become increasingly rich in business types. In addition to the basic functions of planting, brewing, and wine storage, many wineries have tried "tourism+".
For example, the Turpan Volcano Winery relies on desert resources to build a health-care sand spa with an area of more than 10,000 square meters.
"Volcano Winery has embarked on a development path of'industry + tourism'. This year the winery received more than 80,000 tourists, directly driving sales revenue of more than 5 million yuan (RMB, the same below). The winery currently has 130 employees, of which Local employees account for 94%." said Wei Tiantian, manager of the Volcano Winery.
It is reported that Xinjiang has regarded the wine industry as one of its “ten major industries” during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, and has formulated relevant development plans.
According to the plan, by 2025, the Xinjiang wine grape planting area will reach 1 million mu, the annual output of wine will reach 700,000 kiloliters, and the income of wine planting, processing, cultural tourism, catering and other related industries will exceed 80 billion yuan.
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