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Just 10 years ago, Chinese wines rarely rated above average, but now the emerging wine region of Ningxia is overturning all doubts. James Suckling and Zekun Shuai take an insiders’ look at this rising star.

You may know Ningxia (pronounced “Ningshia”), located in north China, because of its desolately beautiful desert topography, or for its ancient tomb sites, or its mountain scenery.

More likely, though, these days you’ll know Ningxia for its wine. The dry, compact continental-climate autonomous region tucked between the much larger Gansu Province and Inner Mongolia is home to nearly 200 producers under the appellation of the Eastern Foothills of Helan Mountain. Some 80 producers own their own winery, and many are newcomers, eager to tap into a growing sophistication in the industry that’s seeing Ningxia wines win acclaim the world over.

Ningxia is often described as China’s answer to Bordeaux. For red wine at least, it’s known for Bordeaux varieties. And inspired by Bordeaux’s classifications, the Ningxia Wine Federation, the young regulatory board, has adopted a five-growth classification system since 2013 to assess and rank producers every two years.

[caption id="attachment_211252" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Helan Qingxue in winter, where vines are buried deep in the soil to hibernate.[/caption]

We recently interviewed winemakers and owners from Ningxia to learn how this promising wine region has kept on improving, year on year. Wines with colour and richness abound, but what about finesse?

Ten years ago, when James Suckling was still the senior editor at Wine Spectator, his only memorable Chinese wine then was from Shanxi, the Grace Vineyard Chairman Reserve 2006, which was rated 86 points. Now, it’s a totally different story. More than half (55 percent) of the 150 wines tasted last year by JamesSuckling.com from China got 90 points or above, and Ningxia is at the centre of this dramatic progress.

Many excellent red wines are full-bodied with concentration and sleek tannins. A few possess the composed finesse we’ve long been looking for in wines from Ningxia.

“Most Chinese consumers are just starting to get used to drinking wine, so some have to rely on their baijiu experience,” said Liu Jianjun, a young, soft-spoken independent winemaker who makes aspiring wines with his garage-wine project, Lingering Clouds. “And when they describe a wine, descriptors for baijiu like ‘perfumed’, ‘smooth’, ‘soft’ or ‘aggressive’ are frequently used. So, some sweet fruit with a moderate level of very ripe tannin and lower acidity might do the trick.”

[caption id="attachment_211255" align="aligncenter" width="466"] Independent winemaker Liu Jianjun's 2017 Cabernet blend was named after his own beard.[/caption]

Cabernet Sauvignon is the unabashed mainstay in Ningxia, responsible for around 70 percent of the red varieties, with Merlot coming a distant second (just more than 15 percent). Over the past few years Marselan, the Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache cross, and Merlot have also found success and popularity, not only in Ningxia but also notably in Xinjiang, Shandong and Hebei provinces.

“Last year, we harvested our first vintage of Malbec,” said Zhang Jing, winemaker at Helan Qingxue, an established producer in Ningxia that was promoted to the much-coveted Second Growth status by the Ningxia Wine Federation in 2019. “At the moment, the result in the barrel is excellent. We’ll see if the final wine is good enough to be bottled on its own.”

“Syrah might be a good bet as well,” says Wang Fang of Kanaan Winery. A few producers have made good progress with it. Zhang of Helan Qingxue also told us that she’d like to try Tempranillo in Ningxia, as the variety ripens almost at the same time as Merlot and is quite hardy to drought. The grape is so pliable for wines of very high calibre,” she said.

[caption id="attachment_211253" align="aligncenter" width="594"] Wang Fang of Kanaan Winery.[/caption]

Pinot Noir in Ningxia can be a bit of a wild card in this extreme climate of dry and hot summers and short growing season. However, Chateau Chanson and Helan Qingxue have made their interpretations of the grape, and the recent vintages we tasted were much better than expected.

Pricing seems to be another issue for Chinese wine. Many people point out that excellent Chinese wines are very expensive, and at the same time they don’t have enough confidence to buy the inexpensive bottles.
But Ningxia might be the first region to change this perception. With more quality wines being made by more than just a few producers, we can presume that the high prices will eventually settle to a reasonable point. There are already many good-value wines under US$30 from Ningxia. But for the leading producers, especially the boutique ones, price won’t go very low, as the cost of production is still high in Ningxia for smaller businesses.

“Against all the odds, Ningxia is the hub of modern Chinese wineries,” said Liu. “They’re less scattered than in other regions, like mountainous Yunnan (where the premium and expensive Ao Yun is produced), and they’re supported by the government. Most importantly, it’s hard to find anywhere else in China like Ningxia where people are so serious and all-out about making excellent wine,” he assured us.

Over the last decade, many newcomers who invested in the wine industry in Ningxia also realised that great wine isn’t made by people wearing suits and ties in a fancy “chateau”, but dirty hands and sweaty faces in dusty vineyards.

Today, Ningxia is making excellent wines and the top bottles are already standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the finest Bordeaux (see our recent story on a Hong Kong wine tasting that pitted top Chinese wines with top names from Bordeaux).

[caption id="attachment_211254" align="aligncenter" width="861"] At Silver Heights, wines were aged in this small cellar.[/caption]

Eight of the Best

James Suckling's favourite wines to date from Ningxia's Helan Mountain East Foothills

Kanaan Winery Crazy Fang 2013
Score: 94
Aromas of currants and berries with fresh herbs and tobacco. Perfumed. A pretty red with currant, sweet-tobacco and spice flavours. It’s long and racy. Beautiful focus and persistence. Excellent wine. Drink or hold.

Jade Vineyard Aria Reserve 2015
Score: 93
Beautiful tobacco with sweet berries and cherries. Hints of spice and chocolate. Full-bodied with ripe, velvety fruit and a long, balanced finish. Some stewed fruit. Shows ripeness with balanced, polished tannins. Impressive length. Drink after 2022.

Chateau Mihope Reserve Dry Red 2017
Score: 93
Opaque, black hue. Tons of new leather, almost rubber, tar and meatiness with blackberries and dark chocolate. Lots of richness, concentration and fruit sweetness, yet the tannin is very polished. Better after 2023.

Helan Qingxue Vineyard Jiabeilan Reserve 2014
Score: 93
Very classy nose with Bordeaux flair. Developing complexity now with cedar undertones. Solid fruit and more restrained savouriness here. Nicely balanced with black-olive and cassis character. Long. 80 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, 12 percent Merlot and 8 percent Cabernet Franc. Drink now or hold.

Lingering Clouds Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Red Beard 2017
Score: 93
Pretty aromas of cherries, flowers and violets follow through to
a medium body with fine, integrated tannins and a bright, fresh finish. This shows poise and focus with a precise and fine palate. 80 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and 20 percent Merlot. Drink or hold.

Silver Heights Emma's Reserve 2015
Score: 93
Aromas of tobacco, cedar and currants with a medium body, soft and silky tannins and beautiful fruit at the finish. Needs time to open, but very attractive already. Drink or hold.

Domaine Cheng Cheng Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Jingjia 2015
Score: 92
Serious depth and complexity. The tannin here is so good. Tightly bound and fine. Full-bodied. Plenty of dark berries and black tea. Leave this in your cellar for two to three years.

Lilan Winery Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot Ningxia Lancui 2017
Score: 92
A powerful red with plenty of richness and concentration. It
has a nice core of ripe black fruit, bitter chocolate and spices. Full-bodied with toasted-wood character, yet shows outstanding balance and potential to age well. Long, fruity and chocolatey finish. Drink after 2022.

The post Ningxia, China’s Answer to Bordeaux, is Fast Becoming a Powerhouse in the World of Wine appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Wine critic James Suckling reports from a blind tasting of 12 wines, and makes a surprising discovery.

Is China capable of producing world-class wines?

Last month, I – along with a small group of luminaries, from the head of a major property company to an Oscar-winning movie director – attended a blind tasting event here in Hong Kong to find out.

The tasting, organised by Canadian businessman Adam Janikowski, pitted six Chinese wines against six from Bordeaux, including great names such as Château Lafite Rothschild, Château Pichon Longueville Lalande and Château Pichon-Longueville Baron. The wines were served in six pairs: One red from France and another from China. The 16 tasters voted for their favourite wine in each pair, and China won four out of the six pairs and tied the other two. Bordeaux failed to win a single pairing.

“I had no idea that China made such outstanding wines,” said a Chinese-Canadian woman, who admitted that she’d preferred the Chinese red in every flight.

The overall winner was LVMH’s 2015 Ao Yun Shangri-La, the cabernet sauvignon blend from northern Yunnan province in southwestern China. The red was open, complex and loaded with currant, sweet berry, tobacco and hints of cedar in the nose and on the palate. By comparison, the Lafite, which was Ao Yun’s companion bottle in the pairing, was tight yet incredibly long and powerful at the finish. I was one of the few who preferred the first growth, because it showed such incredible power and length and potential for ageing.

In fact, all the Bordeaux wines, except for the Lafon-Rochet, which seemed to be a slightly bad bottle, were much tighter, more polished and tannic than the Chinese reds, which showed more ripeness and had even a slightly stewed character to them. The latter were much more attractive to taste and drink now.

I believe most of the people in the tasting were rating the wines for their current drinking pleasure and not for the future – or on a professional level. But the fact is that in almost every pair of reds the Chinese wines were preferred by a consensus for their quality – proof, if you needed it, that the best Chinese wines of today can easily be placed on the table next to bottles of comparable wines from France.

JamesSuckling.com has been following the development of super- premium Chinese wines for some time now. Late last year, our Beijing-based associate editor Zekun Shuai reviewed about 150 wines. A number of other top reds are being produced in the country and they aren’t simply emulating Bordeaux. Marsellan and Syrah are two grape types to watch for the future, as are some small hands-on winemakers.

Most of the people I spoke to at the tasting agreed that China can make world-class wines. Their biggest problem now is to find the bottles they liked, because most are hard to buy at retail just about anywhere outside of the People’s Republic. Maybe that will change soon with the continued improvement in quality.

My notes and scores, shown below, for the full set of 12 wines don’t include ratings or opinions from other tasters at the event.

Château Lafite Rothschild Pauillac 2015
Score: 99
Firm and powerful with blackberries, blueberries, currants and wet earth. Full-bodied, yet tight and angular with very pretty fruit and brightness. Really racy and super, and set for a long, long life. Better after 2025.

Ao Yun Shangri-La 2015
Score: 96
Currants and sweet berries. Tobacco and hints of cedar. Full-bodied with fine, creamy tannins and chocolate, tobacco and cedar at the end. The quality of the tannins is absolutely excellent. Long and driven. Give this time, but so beautiful already. Drink or hold.

Château Pichon-Longueville Baron Pauillac 2015
Score: 95
Blackberries, sweet tobacco, incense and currants. Aromatic. Medium to full body and firm, sleek tannins. Racy and refined. Shows lovely balance and finesse. Pretty now, but needs another three or four years of bottle age. Try from 2023.

Château Cantenac Brown Margaux 2015
Score: 94
The blueberries, blackberries and fresh violets come through nicely on the nose. Full body with round, juicy tannins. Hints of vanilla. Lots of ripe fruit. A little tight now. Try after 2022.

Château Phélan Ségur St.-Estèphe 2015
Score: 94
A beautifully perfumed young red with blackcurrants, blackberries and dark chocolate. Some sweet tobacco. It is medium-to full-bodied with a very balanced and refined palate, showing focus and tightness. This needs time to open. Try after 2023.

Kanaan Winery Ningxia Helan Mountains East Foothills Crazy Fang 2013
Score: 94
Aromas of currants and berries with fresh herbs and tobacco. Perfumed. A pretty red with currant, sweet-tobacco and spice flavours. It’s long and racy. Beautiful focus and persistence. Excellent wine. Drink or hold.

[caption id="attachment_210855" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The best Chinese wines can easily be placed on the table next to comparable wines from France (Image: James Suckling)[/caption]

Château Pichon Longueville Lalande Pauillac 2013
Score: 93
Ripe berries and prunes with some tobacco and vanilla character. Medium to full body, round tannins and a savoury finish. Very drinkable now. Drink or hold.

Jade Vineyard Ningxia Helan Mountains East Foothills Aria Reserve 2015
Score: 93
Beautiful tobacco with sweet berries and cherries. Hints of spice and chocolate. Full-bodied with ripe, velvety fruit and a long, balanced finish. Some stewed fruit. Shows ripeness with balanced, polished tannins. Impressive length. Drink after 2022.

Silver Heights Ningxia Helan Mountains East Foothills Emma’s Reserve 2015
Score: 93
Aromas of tobacco, cedar and currants with a medium body, soft and silky tannins and beautiful fruit at the finish. Needs time to open, but very attractive already. Drink or hold.

Grace Vineyard Shanxi Chairman’s Reserve 2013
Score: 92
Lots of chocolate, stone, sweet tobacco, walnuts and ripe berries. Slightly stewed. Full-bodied, round tannins and a juicy finish. Extremely long and flavourful. So drinkable now.

Château Lafon-Rochet St.-Estèphe 2013
Score: 89
Blackberries, fresh wood, violets and sandalwood. Floral and aromatic. Some chocolate and hazelnut undertones. Medium to full body and dry tannins. This is drying out a bit. Slightly too much wood. Needs drinking.

Helan Qingxue Vineyard Ningxia Helan Mountains East Foothills Jiabeilan Reserve 2015
Score: 87
Stewed fruit on the palate with prunes and green wood. It’s full-bodied with chewy tannins and a savoury finish. Funky. This is disappointing. Bad bottle? Drink now.

This story first appeared on Prestige Singapore

(Main and featured image: James Suckling)

The post Chinese Wines Emerge Tops in a Blind Tasting by James Suckling and Wine Critics appeared first on Prestige Online - Hong Kong.

Made-in-China might be slowly shedding its unsavoury reputation – for some liquors at least.

The post Chinese wines and spirits to check out appeared first on The Peak Magazine.

Made-in-China might be slowly shedding its unsavoury reputation – for some liquors at least.

For more stories like this, visit www.thepeakmagazine.com.sg.