“China started making good wines in 2015,” Lens Moser, from Austria, said when I met him a few days ago in Yinchuan, in the Gobi desert, in China. He thinks that Ningxia, the autonomous region where this is located, with its almost 40,000 ha of vineyards, is perhaps the most promising region and that is also where he himself makes wine.
I was there recently to serve as a judge in The Silk Route Tasting, or the Belt & Road Wine and Spirit Competition. 900 wines participated in the competition.
China is a young wine country but they learn fast. Compared to when Britt was judging a competition in China in 2005 (a pioneering event!) the change is enormous. Today you can find wines of very good quality here, even if not all reach that level (but which wine region would you not say that about?).
More will follow later on this but here you get the names of the wineries that won the “Great Gold Medal”, the highest award (the medals were awarded for specific cuvées, but I skip the names of the cuvées so that the list will not be too long):
- Helan Hong,
- Ho-lan Soul,
- Chateau Mihope,
- Lan Cui, Qilian,
- Silver Heights,
- Gamubur,
- Great Wall Eastern,
- Jade Dove,
- Ge Rui Hong,
- Silkroad,
- Chandon,
- Shaen,
- Helan Mountain,
- Senpatina,
- Yuanrun ShanQi,
- Yuyue,
- Miqin,
- Duke,
- Rong Yuan Mei Hong.
The full medal awards list at the BRWSC 2019.
