In 1987, Yantai was awarded the title of“InternationalVine and Wine City”byInternational Vine and Wine Office.Tinlot, the director general, presented the wine city souvenir medal to Yu Zhengsheng, the mayor of Yantai.

First of all, Yantai has the very first professional winemaking enterprisein Chinese history—Changyu Company. The growing anddevelopmentof Changyu in more than a hundred years not only create legendary and brilliant wine culture but also obtain spectacular achievements, making great contributions to the development of China’s wine career. Furthermore, the unique climatic conditions and geographical conditions of Yantai are particularly suitable for the needs of wine production. With Changyu Company taking the lead, the wine enterprises in Yantai are developing and growing gradually, laying a foundation for the development of China’s wine career and driving the rapid development of China’s wine career. Only a region making outstanding contributions to the planting of grapes where the quality of wine reaches the internationally recognized standardscan be approved to enjoy the reputation of“InternationalVine and Wine City”. The reason for Yantai to get the crown of“InternationalVine and Wine City”is closely related to the substantial contributions of Changyu. In 1915, Changyu Wine won the First Class Gold Award inPanama Pacific International Exposition, achieving instant fame. In 1937, Changyu’s trademark logo of“Cabernet”was formally registered in the Trademark Organization, Business Division, National Government, being the first wine brand of China. “Cabernet” getting the name for the meaning of “all rivers run into sea”, whose most import raw material—Cabernet Gernischt was cultivated in 1931, which is a widely accepted winemaking wine variety in the world independently cultivated by the Chinese.

In 1986, taking the opportunity that Changyu Company invited Mr.Bonny, an French wine expert,to give technical guidance, Changyu got to knowInternationalVine and Wine Officeand expressed the idea of“whether Yantai can join the International Vine and Wine Organization”to Mr. Bonny. In November 1986, under the approval ofInternationalVine and Wine Office, Yantai may join the International Vine and Wine Organization as an observer. With the active efforts of Changyu Company and Yantai municipal government,“Yantai International Wine & Brandy Sensory Evaluation Symposium”was held successfully in June 1987. In October 1987, the annual meeting of International Vine and Wine Organization was held in Rome, the capital of Italy, in which 270 representatives from 28 countries attended this meeting, and Yantai attended the meeting for the first time as an observer by an delegation led by Jiang Dehua, the deputy mayor of Yantai, with the participation of Wang Gongtang, the chief engineer of Changyu Company and other people. On October 31, Mr. Robert Tinlot andFoleyGurnee, the president of International Vine and Wine Organization at that time, formallyannouncedthe list of 116 internationalvineand wine cities in 28 countries and granted certificates to representatives from such cities. Jiang Dehua accepted this honorary title on behalf of Yantai municipal government and signed on the souvenir. So far, Yantai formally became the only“International Vine and Wine City”in China and even Asia.