Evidence shows that it was in HAN dynasty (206 B.C.) that ancient Chinese began to grow grapes and make wines.Wine was firstly recorded in the book of “SHI JI” ( which means historic record ) written by Si Maqian. 138 B.C. the emperor sent Zhangqian to Western Regions for a diplomatic mission, he was surprised to see people there make wine from grapes and rich people stocked wines. Because Western Regions is part of ancient China, this record shows that people in HAN dynasty had learned how to grow grapes and make wine from our neighboring countries.
TANG dynasty is a golden age of winemaking history, because winemaking skills were known by ordinary people at this time. Many poems were written by famous poets to praise wines. When girls got married, Wines were part of presents to their husbands. HU minority people opened wine shops in capital city Changan to sell wines from Western Regions. Large quantity of wine products were sold on the market in YUAN dynasty. “MACO POLO TRAVELOGUE” said that there were many vineyards in Taiyuan of Shanxi province. People made a lot of wines and sent them to different places to sell. In MING dynasty, famous doctor Li Shizhen mentioned winemaking skills and wine medical value in his book “PEN-TS’AO KAN-MU”. He said that wine is good for people’s health and skin. “NONG ZHENG QUAN SHU”, a book about agriculture written by Xu Guangqi, recorded some grape varieties people grew at that time which are: crystal grape (brown with white tinge, big berry and sweet), purple grape ( black, big or small, sweet or sour), green grape ( grown in Sichuan, look like rabbit eyes, sweeter than honey), Suosuo grape ( small like pepper).
