An artist's rendering of Chateau Changyu Baron Balboa scheduled to be completed next year. Photos by Ju Chuanjiang / China Daily

With a good harvest at Changyu's vineyards in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region this year, wine enthusiasts will have the chance to enjoy a vintage that tastes different from the noted winemaker's other products.

The wine from Xinjiang will have a stronger fragrance, according to Cheng Guoli, chief agronomist at Changyu Pioneer Wine Co.

"Grapes from our vineyards in various regions have different flavors, so they're used for different types of wines," Cheng said.

Changyu now has a combined 16,666 hectares of vineyards in Xinjiang, Ningxia, Shandong, Shaanxi, Liaoning and Beijing - fully a quarter of the entire grape growing area in China.

After three years of planting and nurturing quality grape vines, Changyu now has a combined 4,666 hectares of vineyards in the north of Xinjiang.

With dry weather, favorable soil conditions and 2,700 hours of annual sunshine, the area is regarded as one of the best places in the world for quality grapes. The vineyard is irrigated by water from the snow-covered Tianshan Mountains 200 km away.

The sunshine and huge day-night temperature differential result in grapes with more sugar content, according to Wang Jianguo, manager of the Xinjiang vineyards.

"Last year, the average sugar content in grapes from Xinjiang reached 23.65 percent, a figure is seldom seen even in Bordeaux, France's prominent wine producing region," Wang said.

The Eighth Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corp (XPCC) is responsible for growing grapes for Changyu in the autonomous region.

To better use the natural conditions for quality grapes, Changyu and the Eighth Division have begun growing organic grapes. This year, they had a try on 26 hectares.

The grapes will be exclusively used for high-end wine, according to Cheng.