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Hilton Hotels’ new winery property near Beijing aims to promote wine appreciation among its guests

  • The Hollick Hotel Wen’an, in a newly built chateau 90 minutes from the Chinese capital, offers winery tours, wine appreciation and sommelier training
  • The property is surrounded by 20 hectares of vineyards, planted with shiraz wine grapes in collaboration with the Chinese-owned Hollick winery in Australia

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Australian wine meets Chinese hospitality at the Hollick Hotel Wen'an, a 90- minute drive from Beijing and Tianjin.

Visitors to the new Hollick Hotel Wen’an, which has 20 hectares of vineyards and a winery, are greeted with a welcome letter that has the unmistakable fragrance of red wine.

The hotel’s general manager, William Wu, says such details are necessary to create the right atmosphere for a wine-themed hotel. “The pandemic made the hotel sector think deeply how to survive. Our hotel wants to create a natural environment where people can appreciate wine.”

Recently opened in the newly built 600-hectare China Green Development Group (CGDG) Healthy Eco-City a 90-minute drive from Beijing and Tianjin, the hotel is a collaboration between the Hilton hotel chain and South Australian winery Hollick, which was bought by CGDC in 2014.

One-third of the hotel’s vineyards have been planted with shiraz, a red wine grape mostly used in Australia and South Africa. The water to irrigate the vines comes from Baiyang Lake in nearby Hebei province. Wu says the shiraz grapes will be ready for harvest in September.

General manager William Wu plans to localise some of the hotel’s wine production.
General manager William Wu plans to localise some of the hotel’s wine production.

“We prepared the land for a year to create the right terroir. The shiraz will be used to make two wines. We might create new names for them later,” he says.

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