The birth of Martin Winery is an accidental intertwining of the fates of several people, but it is also an inevitable product of an era. Looking back on the past 24 years, it is the imprint of the owner Tian Jiang's youth, the bumpy development process of Martin Winery, and the epitome of Huailai and even the entire Chinese domestic wine industry.
The times gave Martin the opportunity to be born, but it also shackled its development, and now, will it become the darling of the new era?
Ancient wine regions,
The birthplace of China's first bottle of dry white
The bus travels in the northwest direction of Beijing, with lofty mountains dangling out of the car window, Badaling and Juyongguan Great Wall winding between the mountains opposite, but about 90 kilometers away into Huailai County.
Although the south is still full of summer, the early autumn huailai climate is pleasant, and the blue sky is a white cloud, which is the season of melon and fruit.
Image credit: Kathy
Huailai is very close to downtown Beijing, but the whole appearance here is not much different from the ordinary northern county that you have seen. On the road to the county seat, huge sculptures in the shape of wine bottles, coupled with the eye-catching "Wine Country" billboard, remind visitors here that this is a land closely linked to wine.
Image source: Huailai Wine and Wine Bureau
Historical data have proved that the history of Huailai grape cultivation has exceeded a thousand years, and the longan grapes here have become tributes in the Tang Dynasty. Huailai's modern wine-making plant can be traced back to the "Yu Chengming" tank house.
In 1914, the "red boiled wine" brewed by the "YuChengming" tank house won the gold medal at the Panama International Wine Competition. In 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, on the basis of the original "Yu Chengming" and other six private brewing tank houses, the "46th Public Distillery in North China" was established. In 1950, it was renamed "Sand City Distillery".
At the end of September 1975, the "North China Grape Wine Viticulture Technology Cooperation Meeting" was held in Zhangjiakou, and the goal of studying how to give full play to the advantages of the region and get the wine up. Since then, it has become the focus of attention in the national wine industry.
After the end of the "North China Grape Wine Grape Cultivation Technology Cooperation Meeting", the relevant comrades of the Ministry of Light Industry and the Ministry of Foreign Trade came to Shacheng Distillery to introduce the production and sales of foreign wines, and combined with the situation at that time, Shacheng Distillery was required to give strong support to the relevant wine experiments proposed in the above meeting, and Guo Qichang was responsible for specific technical guidance and solving problems on the spot.
At the beginning of May 1976, Mr. Guo Qichang conducted a sensory identification of all the stored wines of Shacheng Distillery in the fruit wine workshop of Shacheng Distillery, and in November of the same year, Zhangjiakou District identified 5 villages of Huailai Nuanquan Commune and Zhuolu Hot Spring Tun as single grape production bases. At the end of that year, the first dry white wines were born.
In 1979, the Institute of Food Fermentation Industry Science of the Ministry of Light Industry and Shacheng Distillery jointly completed the key project of the Ministry of Light Industry "Research on the New Process of Dry White Wine", and the first bottle of dry white wine that meets international standards in China was born. In the summer of that year, the list of varieties proposed by the Light Industry Food Fermentation Institute, with the joint efforts of the China Grain, Oil and Food Import and Export Corporation, Shacheng Distillery signed a contract with the American Soil Inspection Company to introduce 13 international varieties, which were shipped to Huailai for planting in March of the following year.
In August 1983, with the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, the "China Great Wall Wine Co., Ltd." was established by zhangjiakou Great Wall Brewing Company, China Grain, Oil and Food Import and Export Corporation, and Hong Kong Broad Company. It was its founding that profoundly influenced the Huailai appellation in the decades that followed, giving birth to one of our destinations this time– Martin Winery. Château Martin has experienced the earth-shaking changes in Huailai and China's wine industry and is one of the witnesses of the past 30 years of history.
The sudden rise of "dry red fever",
This stay is tian jiang's entire youth
With the continuous development and growth of Great Wall wine, its own brewing capacity can no longer meet the needs of the market. In the mid-1990s and around 1995, fermentation stations for the original wines of the Great Wall wines began to appear in the Huailai region.
It just so happened that the local government also had such a demand, at that time, farmers planted a lot of longan grapes, which could not be consumed by fresh food alone, so making wine was a good solution. Moreover, the introduction of foreign-funded enterprises was one of the key projects of Huailai at that time. Around the same time, many wineries mushroomed in the Huailai appellation.
In 1996, Château Martin, which owns part of the foreign shares, was founded in this context. At that time, British businessman Martin had some real estate projects in China. At that time, Ye Liansong, the governor of Hebei Province, visited Britain and wanted Tian Jun, Tian Jiang's brother, to help Hebei Province introduce some foreign investment.
Tian Jun found Martin, martin chose wine in many projects at that time, first because Martin himself liked wine, and second, he saw that Great Wall wine had been exported to the United Kingdom, he thought that the project was promising, and Martin hoped that Tian Jun could take a stake.
Tian Jiang, who was 35 years old at the time, had just changed careers and left the military hospital. Tian Jun hoped that his younger brother Tian Jiang would help him participate in the preparations for the first two years. Tian Jiang originally planned to wait for the company to get on the right track before returning to hospitals or pharmaceutical-related industries. At that time, the Great Wall could sell about 20,000 tons of dry white wine per year, and the proportion of white wine and red wine in the market was about 9:1, and it was almost impossible to see the figure of imported wine, which was in stark contrast to now.
The original intention of establishing the fermentation station was to buy grapes from local farmers, then make wine, and then sell them to the Great Wall, which is a very complete chain of grape planting, brewing, packaging and sales, which Tian Jiang thought was a project that was not complicated. In the beginning, Martin Winery was a three-party joint venture between Martin and Tianjiang Brothers, the local government and the Great Wall Wine Company.
But the power of the times to turn the tide of fate is simply too powerful.
Shortly after the start of the project, at the end of 1996, coinciding with the year before The return of Hong Kong, the Chinese wine consumption market underwent tremendous changes, originally dry white wine was very popular in China, but the "dry red wind" blowing from Hong Kong and Guangdong quickly blew inland.
Overnight, the domestic market changed from "white" to "red", completely changing the drinking habits of Chinese wine consumers. This is a devastating blow to the vast majority of winegrowers and wineries. At that time, the vineyards were almost all white grapes, and only a few wineries had red grapes. In less than a year, the sales volume of 20,000 tons of dry white wine in the Great Wall has suddenly shrunk to one-tenth.
For Martin Winery, it doesn't make sense to continue collecting longan grapes to make dry white wines. In 1997, Martin Winery provided the Great Wall with 3,000 tons of longan peach and 1,000 tons of longan dry white, and unexpectedly, these 4,000 tons of original wine was the largest supply in the 20 years of cooperation with the Great Wall.
The unexpected market changes have changed not only the pattern of Chinese wine, but also the fate of TianJiang. When the dry white is slow to sell, the red is hot, and the red wine raw materials are insufficient, Tian Jiang has to continue to stay to solve the hot potato thrown by the times, waiting for the red grape raw materials to be sufficient. Around 2000, red wines began to be made on a large scale in Huailai.
"Chinese drinking wine is often on some important occasions, such as wedding banquets, celebrations, the color of red wine is more festive for Chinese, the meaning is beautiful, and red wine tannins, phenols content is higher."
Talking about the sudden rise of "dry red fever" in 1996, Tian Jiang analyzed, "There is also a possibility that the acidity and aroma of white wine at that time were not balanced enough, and It was not very compatible with Chinese food, and the quality of white wine is much better than before."
Martin, from the fermentation station of the Great Wall to the boutique winery
After 1995, the number of fermentation stations supplying raw wine for Great Wall wine continued to increase, reaching its peak around 2000, with about 15 companies. During that time, Great Wall Wine played a crucial role in the development of the grape and wine industry in Huailai County, contributing about half of the local government's tax revenue.
But this "harmonious" time did not last long. Later, there were more and more original wineries, the purchase price of the original wine was getting lower and lower, and other wine companies also began to come to Huailai to buy the original wine, but at that time, Huailai did not make more planning in grape planting, so it caused a shortage of raw materials.
However, the low price of original wine has led to the lower and lower prices of farmers' grapes purchased by fermentation stations, and the income of farmers cannot meet the needs of normal life.
At this time, the Great Wall began to assign tasks to various fermentation stations, although each fermentation station seemed to be "alive", but "not enough to eat", the enthusiasm of farmers to plant declined, and young people were not willing to continue to grow grapes. In March 2003, China Great Wall Wine Co., Ltd. reformed its shareholding and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of COFCO Group.
In 2006, the national policy began to change, the government no longer allowed to participate in the company, so the local government's original shares withdrew. In 2010, Martin's stake also withdrew. After investing in wine in China for 14 years, they realized that the industry was too invested, and the prospects were uncertain and the gains were minimal.
At this time, Tian Jiang was more aware that the original wine was not a long-term way out, so he considered doing his own brand, building his own winemaking team, began to grow his own grapes, established a wine cellar, and officially embarked on the road of transformation.
Martin Winery is a fermentation station that began to transform relatively early, in 1999 the first production line was introduced, and the domestic equipment purchased was from the Xi'an Light Industry Research Institute, with an investment of 200,000 to 300,000 yuan. "We have been using this equipment for almost 10 years, and after Martin withdrew we purchased filling equipment in Italy."
In fact, in terms of equipment investment, Martin Winery has always been very willing. As early as the initial preparations, 3 million yuan was invested in the purchase of destemmer crushers, presses, etc., and then tens of millions of dollars were spent to purchase stainless steel materials from Japan and 160 40-ton fermentation tanks were established.
From 1999 to 2009, martin winery has been making bottled wine for 10 years. However, due to the main supply of original wine, the input of bottled wine is not large, and the progress is slow. There are also a number of other wineries, like Martin, who have gradually established their own bottling lines.
In the fermentation workshop of Martin Winery, two destemmerizers imported from Italy in 1997 are placed. Recalling the scene at that time, Tian Jiang is still vividly remembered. "At that time, we started construction on April 3, 1997, and put into production on September 26, so we didn't go to Italy to investigate at that time, and we directly introduced the equipment through an intermediary company. Workers from Italy came to install equipment, and as a result, they had never seen longan grapes, and at that time, only longan grapes could be used to make wine, and after the longan grapes were broken, they could not be pressed when pressing, and the longan grapes were too watery and the particles were relatively large. ”
In order to make the machine run normally, they took a lot of measures, including laying some corn stalks and straw stalks before pressing, "so everything is not as simple as imagined, Italian equipment may not be able to use directly in China, although there are many problems but with the passage of time, slowly groping, and finally solved", Tian Jiang said this sentence, as if to say that Italian equipment brought him feelings, but it seems that it is not just describing this matter.
In 2014, Martin's own grapes began to bear high-quality fruit and began to brew château wines. Prior to this, Martin Winery brewed basically house wine, and the original market for bottled wine was not well done. After 2016, the quality of Martin's wines began to be recognized by the market, and successive awards were won.
Looking back at the development of Huailai's wine industry in the past few decades, Martin Winery is one of the successful cases of transformation. But not every fermentation station has been transformed smoothly, and some fermentation stations have now lost their voice in the market, some have been sold to others, and some have entered other industries.
The transformation of the fermentation station, coupled with the diversified development of Huailai later, high-tech, real estate enterprises stationed in, the proportion of tax revenue accounted for by the Great Wall wine has declined, and at the same time, in the entire domestic wine market, everyone has high requirements for the quality of wine, and various production areas have begun to build new wineries, coinciding with the rapid development of imported wines in the domestic market, and the Great Wall wine has also been squeezed.
2015 was the last year that Château Martin supplied the original wine to the Great Wall. In the nearly 20 years from 1996 to 2015, Martin Winery did not make a significant profit, in the words of Tian Jiang, "half loss, half profit, just break even."
Martin Château has a production capacity of 5,000 tons, but only 1,000 tons to 3,000 tons of original wine is supplied to the Great Wall every year, and the price is not appropriate. This accelerated Château Martin's start to its own development path. In 2018, COFCO officially withdrew its stake from Martin Winery.
Although the interval between British businessman Martin and COFCO's exit is several years, the reasons are similar: the industry is too slow to make profits, profits are low, and often lose money.
"When we first started to do fermentation stations in the 1990s, we didn't know much about the industry, and in retrospect, if we had established our own filling line at the beginning and sold bottled wine directly, the profits obtained by the company would be better and more beneficial to the development of the enterprise." It was also through the process of exploration that I realized that there was no hope of making only the original wine, but fortunately, we registered the Martin trademark at the beginning."
Now Château Martin has 200 acres of its own vineyard. Tian Jiang said that if new funds enter, Martin Winery will gradually expand its base later, "only in this way can we ensure that the quality goes further."
Cooperate with Peking University alumni to expand wine tourism,
Constantly explore more new models
Tian Jun graduated from the Department of Economics at Peking University, while Tian Jiang studied at Beijing Medical University, now the Peking University Medical School. Many Alumni of Peking University wanted to find a reliable way to buy wine, so they gathered the strength of 100 alumni to establish an unnamed winery in Huailai.
Martin Winery grows and makes wine, and the 100 alumni can get the high-quality wines they want. The period wine launched by Martin Winery is also very effective.
Long before the local government called for the integration of the three industries, Martin Winery began to lay out the winery tourism. In the early days, some tourists from Beijing passed by the door of the winery and asked if they could buy wine, but when they knew that they still needed to go inside, many people gave up their plans to buy wine.
In order to retain this part of the customer, Martin Winery later established a Sunshine Winery at the entrance for passing tourists to taste and buy wine, and now the Sunshine Winery is responsible for only one employee, with annual sales of hundreds of thousands and many repeat customers.
Later, many people will enter the winery after tasting the wine, hoping that they can eat or even rest in the winery, so Martin Winery caters to the needs of tourists, and began to establish a villa group in 2015, which not only enriches the winery experience of tourists, but also improves the direct sales of winery wines.
In the future, accurately position yourself in the market
Finding your own position is very important for every domestic wine company. And Tian Jiang recognized this very clearly, which prompted him to make every choice he made very steadily.
"Have you ever thought of expanding your sales scope to the whole country?"
"Our future goal is to do a good job in the base camp and seize the Beijing-Tianjin wing", Tian Jiang did not rush to achieve success. In Martin's 200 acres of vineyards are rich grape varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Marselan, Pinot Noir, Denver, Riesling, Chardonnay, Munson Jr. and Longan. The yield per mu is controlled at 200-300 kg, and we insist on making a good winery wine.
Currently, the main sales channel of Martin Winery wines is for fixed customers in the northern region. Some customers in Beijing travel to the winery on weekends. The winery sells less than 10 million a year, "if we can reach 230 million sales a year, life will be better," Tian Jiang told Wine magazine.
"In fact, as long as we do a good job in the northern region, we don't have to develop to the south." After all, wine is experiential marketing, and consumers will have a better feeling if they can travel and experience at the winery. I think this is a big trend, when there is no big investment, seriously do a good job of wine, know and know more and more people at Martin Winery, and everyone's praise is the best way to market." "The investment in the vineyard is long-term, it needs perseverance, and the investment is relatively large, we can only come step by step, I believe it will get better and better."
Through Martin Winery to see the modern wine development history of Huailai, through Huailai to understand the market changes of Chinese wine in the past 30 years, we find that whether it is a winery or a person, it is wrapped up in the context of the times. Today, Martin Winery, whose goals are clear and clear, is following the changes in the market and has embarked on a path of its own.
| Kathy
The pictures, unless otherwise noted, are from Martin Winery