An Englishman's dream
Huadong Winery was the dream of Michael Parry, a wine and food merchant from Hong Kong. In the mid-1980s he founded it as a joint venture with the state wine company of Qingdao, on the slopes of the Laoshan mountains just inland from the city. He imported French equipment and vine cuttings and built a red-roofed château: one of China's first European-style wineries.
White wine pioneer
While the rest of China drank sweet wines, Huadong made crisp, dry whites. Its Chardonnay and Italian Riesling (Welschriesling) became some of the first Chinese varietal wines known abroad and a fixture at banquets in Chinese hotels and restaurants around the world. Michael Parry did not live to see the winery's full success; it was later owned by international drinks groups, and today it carries his name as Huadong-Parry.
Today
Huadong makes a wide range of wines, including Chardonnay, Italian Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon, from vineyards around the winery and from Penglai.
Why it matters
Huadong showed, decades before Ningxia's success, that China could make clean, modern wines with a sense of place.