Changyu Noble Dragon, the biggest and most famous wine brand in China, defeated a raft of labels from respected wine brands in a blind-tasting test, ranking in first place.

In a set of tastings in Londons Asia House last month, the Drinks Business brought 5 Masters of Wine and 5  Masters of Sommeliers together and put 13 samples of the worlds best-selling wine brands to the test in  blind-tasting. All the wines are so big and distributed worldwide, and are consumed in millions and millions.

This result showed that Chinas Changyu can produce a wine in an appealing style at an inexpensive price point, and it also showed that it can make something of good quality on a large scale.

Noble Dragon is Chinas largest wine brand and hails from Shandong-based producer Changyu. It was launched in 1931 and sells more than 30 million bottles globally every year.

It was the first Chinese wine to be stocked by UK supermarkets Sainsburys and Waitrose and sold in 30 countries around the world.

The Changyu Noble Dragon Reserve Dry Red in this tasting comprised 80% Cabernet Gernischt, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon from the 2018 vintage. Cabernet Gernischt is independently cultivated by Changyu in China. The grapes are all sourced from the Yantai wine region in Shandong, and the chief winemaker is Dr Li Jiming. It spends over six months in medium-toast fine-grain oak barrels.

China has a long history of wine culture. As early as over 2,000 years ago. Yet the history of industrialized winemaking started only from 1892. It was in this year that Mr. Zhang Bishi, a patriotic overseas Chinese, founded Chinas first industrialized winemaking enterprise--Changyu in Yantai, Shandong. At that time, Changyu brought in 124 varieties of excellent wine grapes from Europe. It successfully built Asias first big underground wine cellar and employed winemakers from countries such as Austria and Italy, made Chinas first bottle of wine and first bottle of brandy with industrialized methods.

In 2019, Changyu continued to be the worlds fourth largest wine brand according to the release by Drinks Business. And in 2020, Brand Finance released a list of "the worlds most Valuable Wine & Champagne brands", Changyu ranked second in the world of this list.