Tibetan villagers offer barley wine to neighbors

14.08.2022

In this unpublished photo, Lhasa locals offer barley wine to neighbors in the Tibet autonomous region. CHOGO XINHUA LHASA - Golha Drolma pours wine into the glasses of guests in her own courtyard in the Tibet autonomous region in southwest China while singing a cheery toast song.

Golha Drolma is from the rural area of Mangkam County, located in a dry and hot valley where grapes grow better. Nearly every household in her hometown has a winemaking history of more than 100 years and knows how to brew wine.

Golha Drolma, who runs a Tibetan restaurant at home, said that the grapes grown here are big and sweet, so the wine made from them is popular.

Local villagers in Mangkam have profited from the wine industry by selling their own wine and growing grapes for modern wineries.

Our company has developed 10 relevant products, including dry red wine and dry white wine. We produce 200 million barrels of wine a year, worth about 30 million yuan about US $4.46 million, said Losum Tsering, chairman of a local winery in the county.

The grapes are grown in accordance with the organic farming methods, which is another reason why the company's wines are favored by consumers, he said.

Losum Tsering studied grape and winemaking at Northwest A&F University in Shaanxi province in northwest China before he spent all his savings and loaned another 900,000 yuan to start the winemaking business in 2011.

He said we needed to bring in modern technology so that our wine products can go out.

Wine has become an important industry in Mangkam County with government support. Mangkam grapes were registered in 2020 as one of the Agro-product Geographic Indications and the county now has six wine enterprises.

The income of the locals has grown as wine companies encourage the nearby villagers to grow grapes. The grape plantation area of Mangkam county has reached over 666.7 hectares, generating an annual income of more than 8,000 yuan per household.