Famed Chateau Lafite wine opens China production center

The famed French wine of Chateau Lafite is now being produced in China, its first production base in Asia, according to officials.

Yantai's Penglai became the third production base of the producer the DBR (Lafite) Group in the world, following Argentina and Chile, they added.

The Penglai production center of the Domain De Long Dai (Lafite), situated in Qiushan Valley, opened to public on Sept 19.

Covering a total area of 9, 000 square meters, it mainly produces five types of wine – Cabernet Sauvignon, Maselan, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Syrah.

Penglai is already generally acknowledged as an area for high-quality wine, with standardized wine grape production bases covering a total area of 533 hectares.

The city houses about 56 wine producers such as COFCO Great Wall and 33 high-class chateaus including Chateau Lafite Penglai and Chateau Junding.

It currently receives more than 2 million wine culture tourists every year and its annual total income hit 4.5 billion yuan ($630 million), helping it become one of the largest wine producing areas aross the world.

Officials said the launch of Chateau Lafite has accelerated the city's development and achieved Penglai's ambition to introduce the world's top famous chateau.