The first time I visited mainland China—in the winter of 1979—the country, isolated for decades, was one of the poorest in the world. Although European missionaries in China had planted grapes and made small amounts of wine in the mid 1800s, by 1979, there was no wine in the country, at least none that I knew of. There was also no heat in the “special visitor” hotels. I drank hot tea by the gallon. It was the only central heating.
In 2015, 36 years later, I went for the first time to the province Ningxia, on the edge of the Gobi Desert. A Chinese friend had described Ningxia as “the Napa Valley of China.” Thousands of Chinese workers were building the roads in front of us as our car slowly made its way to each winery. I had gone to Ningxia at the government’s invitation, and to do research for the third Edition of my book. As a wine speaker and author of the The Wine Bible, this was an incredible opportunity and pivotal moment in expanding my knowledge and understanding of the Chinese wine industry.
On my first night, I met with Ningxia’s Communist Party leader who stoically shared with me his plans for immediately instituting a Ningxia classification system modeled on the 1855 Classification of Bordeaux. Almost no Ningxia winery at the time was more than 2 or 3 years old and none had an established track record. It appeared not to matter. With an imperiousness that I had never seen in the wine industry, he assured me of Ningxia’s global ambitions and future success. And then he gave me a book of his exquisite watercolor paintings. He was, in fact, an accomplished artist.
Last month—45 years after my first visit to China–I hosted a tasting in my office of 30 top Chinese wines, mostly Cabernets and Merlots, along with some Chardonnays, Cabernet Francs, and Marselans (a cross of Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache). The wines had been bought and carried back from China by Christopher Beros, Director, Greater China and Southeast Asia, of the California Wine Institute. Chris had invited me and several other journalists for this purely educational tasting, and he’d asked Gus Zhu, China’s first Master of Wine, to lead the tasting. As a speaker and author of the Wine Bible,
As it turns out, the tasting was the most comprehensive tasting of Chinese wines ever held in the US.
In China, grape wine is known as pu tao jiu, distinguishing it from bai jiu (“white spirit”) which is a 55 proof alcohol spirit distilled from sorghum. Bai Jiu is the main alcoholic drink in China and Moutai, the leading brand of bai jiu, is also the world’s single most valuable liquor company, worth an estimated $72 billion.
We tasted wines from China’s six major wine provinces: Xinjiang in the far west; Ningxia in central China; Hebei, Shanxi, and Shandong in the East, and Yunnan in the southwest. In particular, wines from Yunnan have always fascinated me since they are from the region known as Shangri-La, high in the Himalayan Mountains, with vineyards that broach 9,000 feet in altitude. I had been there, too, just before Covid, to visit Ao Yun, the winery owned by LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy).
According to Gus Zhu, there are more than 1000 wineries in China today, and the Chinese themselves are proud in particular of “luxury Chinese wine,” which can cost many hundreds of dollars a bottle. Indeed, drinking luxury wine dovetails neatly with the Chinese desire for luxury products in general, especially among younger affluent Chinese. Their grandparents may have worn rough-hewn Mao jackets, but they are wearing Prada.
Overall the quality of the wines was very high, and some wines could easily have been slipped into a blind tasting of Napa Valley wines or Bordeaux and no one would have been the wiser.
Here were my ten favorites, which I’d be very happy to drink again in China.
Unfortunately only the Long Dai is currently available in the US. (The wines are listed in the order in which tasted through the provinces).
LONG DAI 2020 (Shandong)
An intensely flavorful Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc/Marselan blend. This is the Chinese winery owned by Bordeaux’s Château Lafite Rothschild.
GRACE VINEYARD “Chairman’s Reserve” 2018 (Shanxi)
One of the first luxury wines in China. Silky but structured. Beautiful savory flavors with rich cassislike fruit. Owner Judy Chan left a career at Goldman Sachs/Asia to head up the winery founded by her father in 1997.
PUCHANG Saperavi 2017(Xinjiang)
Saperavi is one of the most ancient red grapes in the world. Here on China’s vast western desert, it makes a juicy, savory wine, with an edge of sage and black olive.
TIANSAI Marselan 2017 (Xinjiang)
Super velvety soft. Rich, juicy, and delicious with lots of Chinese 5-spice and cumin notes. Marselan, a cross of Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache bred in 1961, has become well known in China.
DOMAINE CHARME Chardonnay 2022 (Ningxia)
Fresh and apple-y with lovely spice notes. Very long on the palate.
CHATEAU CHANSON Cabernet Franc 2019 (Ningxia)
The top Cabernet Francs in China are simply amazing. This one has a wild, spicy, grilled green pepper quality to it, and a dark earthiness.
XIGE “No 28” Malbec 2021 (Ningxia)
Massive and delicious. Super dry and spicy with a rich core. Very long.
HELAN QINGXUE “Jia Bei Lan Reserve” Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 (Ningxia)
Sleek like many Bordeaux wines, with cassis, green peppercorn, and tobacco notes.
XIAOLING “Nuages de Xiaoling” 2017 (Yunnan/Shangri-La)
A fantastic Cabernet/Merlot blend with a magestic “mountain tannin” structure. Grapes grown starting at 6,000 feet in altitude on the edge of Tibet in the Himalayas.
XIAOLING 2019 (Yunnan/Shangri-La)
Another powerful and complex Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot blend from vineyards in the Himalayan Mountains. In Mandarin, the name XiaoLing means, “Cloudy Peak of the Mountains.”
Karen MacNeil is the author of The Wine Bible and an internationally renowned wine keynote speaker for corporate and private events.
