According to theResolution Announcement of 8thMeeting of 7thBoard of Directors of Yantai Changyu Pioneer Wine Co., Ltd.published recently, the “newly-built projects” inProposal on 2018 Capital Expenditure Planreviewed and passed by the meeting included purchasing of 1,450 oak barrels.

As for wine and brandy, the importance of oak barrel may be only second to grape. Dr. Li Jiming, chief engineer of Changyu Company, pointed out in his treatiseOak Barrels The Cradle of Wine(published by China Light Industry Press in 2010): “Oak barrel can obviously improve the quality of the wine and has become a container necessary for aging of high-quality wine. However, aging of brandy must be in the oak barrel. The age of the brandy is calculated as per the storage time in oak barrel.”

As introduced, the timber for making oak barrel is taken from the central part of old oak of a hundred years old and the suitable tree species mainly include European Quercus Petraea, European Quercus robur, American Quercus alba L. etc. The available timber of one mature Quercus Petraea can only make two Bordeaux oak barrels with a volume of 255L on average, and all barrel factories in French Oak Making Alliance only produced 601,595 oak barrels in 2016, which means that oak barrel is an extremely expensive wine-making equipment. Changyu Company is the largest import enterprise of French oak barrel in China, the oak barrels used by Yantai Chateau Changyu-Castel, Beijing Chateau Changyu AFIP Global, Ningxia Chateau Changyu Moser XV, Shaanxi Chateau Changyu Rena and Xinjiang Chateau Changyu Barbon Balboa mainly include famous French oak barrel brands such as Seguin Moreau, Boutes, Nadalie, Demptos,N Vicard and Saury. (Chen Zhuang)