Tour of Chateau Changyu Baron Balboa: A Wine Castle in the Oasis
Shihezi City of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is known to the world as the Army Reclamation City and Pearl of Desert. Now, a touch of romance is added to the city with the founding of the French-style wine castle in the oasis—Chateau Changyu Baron Balboa, which was officially open to business on June 6. Tourists to Xinjiang may find here a pleasant choice of visiting—a place to experience wine and wine culture.
A Wine Castle in the Oasis at the Foot of Tianshan Mountain
With an investment of RMB 0.6 billion yuan, Chateau Changyu Baron Balboa is built by Changyu, the leading wine company of China. Located in Shihezi City at the foot of Tianshan Mountain, it combines together grape growing, wine production, tasting and sales, wine culture promotion, tourism and catering.
The layout of the 67- hectare Chateau is like ripples caused by a drop of wine, with symmetric distributions along the rings. Through the huge gate similar to Arc de Triomphe, you may see the main castle with the 19th century classic French style. Flanked by a few similar small castles, the Castle’s red-white wall and dark cyan roof radiate an aura of romance and beauty. In front of the Castle is a large beautifully manicured garden, with long vine corridors on both sides. The landscaping integrates the cream of classic French and western Chinese. The Chateau looks majestic against the exceptionally clear blue sky and white clouds. The five-storey main castle has a total construction area of 22,000m2, with an underground cellar, the production line on the first floor, the products exhibition and tasting on the second floor, the museum on the third floor, and the 4D Cinema on the fourth floor.
Looking afar from the high spot of the Castle, you may find yourself greeted by Tianshan Mountain not far away, together with vast stretches of vines at the foot of the mountain. With a sight of this, even the air seems to smell the fragrance of grapes.
Treat yourself to a relaxing holiday in the Chateau with your family or friends. While wandering inside the Chateau, indulge yourself in the beauty of green gardening, blue sky, and the classic French Castle. Many young couples prefer to take western-castle-style wedding photos here. In the gracefully played music, the bride-to-be in white wedding gown makes a lifelong commitment with her loved one, a moment forever.
Main Castle of the Chateau
Dome Cinema in the Castle
To Experience Changyu’s Centenary Legend
The wine themed culture museum in the main Castle is the first of its kind in Xinjiang. Show rooms with the topics of “Secrets in Wine,” “Changyu Stories,” and “4D Cinema” introduce the knowledge of wine making and tasting, etc.
In the “Secrets in Wine” Room, interaction platforms are set up for the fun of the tourists, like “Secrets in Tasting,” “Grapes are Ripe,” “Testing Your Health,” and “Wine and Cuisine,” etc.
The movie on show in the Dome Cinema is original wine-themed movie “Adventures in Balboa Kingdom.” When the movie starts, the images surround the audience from front to far behind, pulling them right into a wine barrel, where they witness the magic transformation of grapes into wine.
In “Changyu Stories” Room, the legendary stories of Changyu’s growth in over 100 years highlight the history of modern Chinese wine industry represented by Changyu. What impresses the visitors most is the story of Mr. Balboa, the first wine maker of the company, who came from a famous wine family in Europe with the hereditary title of Baron of Austro-Hungary Empire, and whose father went down in the history of winemaking as the inventor of Balboa Juice Meter. Mr. Balboa worked for Changyu for 18 years and made Changyu’s first bottle wine and brandy, the very first in China. The Chateau is named after him in honor of his contribution.
Of all the places inside the Chateau, the 4D Cinema is the most exciting place the visitor couldn’t miss. With the most refreshing effects of vibration, blowing, spraying, smoke, bubbles, and smells, the movie on show introduces Changyu’s layout of chateaus around the globe and their features.
As introduced by Mr. Yang Ming, Deputy General Manager of Changyu, the opening of Changyu Wine Culture Museum and Chateau Changyu-Castel over a dozen years ago started the first Chinese industrial wine tourism route. Now, the layout of “6 chateaus plus 1 wine culture museum in China” has been established for industrial wine tourism with a projected annual reception capability of over 4 million tourist flow in the future. Changyu will become China’s largest industrial wine tourism destination.
To Experience the Life Journey of Wine
Come to Chateau Changyu Baron Balboa in Xinjiang, and you can experience the remarkable life journey of wine starting from grape growing, picking and selecting to fermentation and aging.
As introduced by the planting technician, the vineyard nestles in the wine-growing area along the west bank of the Manas River at the north foot of Tianshan Mountain, which shares the same north latitude of 44 degrees with the famous wine regions like Bordeaux of France and California of USA and enjoys a sunshine duration well over 2,800 hours throughout the year. The water for vineyard irrigation is sourced from the melted snow of the glaciers of the Tianshan Mountain, which guarantees zero pollution during vine growing.
According to Count John Salvi, Honorary President and Chief Wine Maker of the Chateau, the distinctive location of Xinjiang with ample sunshine and low precipitation ensures the stable quality of the grapes, which have an average sugar content well above 23 degrees, which guarantees the production of full-bodied wine with alcohol content of 13.5 degrees.
In addition to the 37 hectares of wine grapes, 3.3 hectares of table grapes are also planted in the vineyard for tourists to pick.
The underground cellar is a must for tourists. The 6,000 m2 round cellar stores over 600 tons of wine in over 2,000 neatly ricked oak barrels. The whole place smells faint wine bouquet. Private wine storage service is also available here.
A labyrinth is located inside the cellar, through which you can find the vintage wine archives area, the Pioneer wine area and DIY area. Tourists can draw their labels. Stick the label to the wine bottle, and you’ve got your personalized wine.
An Encounter with “My Passionate Lover” in the “Wine Paradise”
A distant glimpse of the Tianshan Mountain from the Chateau
“The wine here is like my passionate lover,” said Count John Salvi using a humorous metaphor. As a Master of Wine and Honorary President of the Chateau, he cherishes wine as the love of his life, whom he found at last here in Xinjiang after traveling more than 40 countries
Turpan, China’s famous grape growing area, can grow extremely sweet grapes, where the Kazakh girls, good at horse riding and lamb farming, are handsomely tomboy styled. Made with local grapes, wines of the Chateau taste as passionate as the vigorous local girls. Its alcohol content reaches a unique 13.5 degrees, 1.5 degrees higher than that of the normal wines.
Deep ruby red in color, wines of the Chateau smell of rich black berry and elegant oak aromas. Full bodied and mellow, they are powerfully structured with complexity and persistent aftertaste.
According to Count John Salvi, when tasting the wine here, you will feel the burning passion like hugging your loved one. When sharing the wines with family, friends or partners, every one will have a good time and feel close to each other.
Gourmets also believe that a full-bodied wine gets along well with Chinese eating habit. It will bring you a different dinning experience, since a aromatic wine can pair with Sichuan and Hunan cuisines or Jiangsu and Zhejiang cuisines, and goes along well with beef and seafood.
Xinjiang is a fascinating tourism destination. If you have the chance to be there, do not miss Chateau Changyu Baron Balboa which is only a 2-hours drive away from Urumqi. Taste the 13.5-degree full-bodied wine of the Chateau, very possibly you will fall in love with this “passionate lover.”