A new beginning for Chinese wine and Shandong?

Last night was a historic moment for the fine wine world when the Rothschild family of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild received title to their winery in China’s Shandong peninsula near the city of Penglai. There were toasts through the night including glasses of their first commercially released wine from Long Dai, a 2017 blend of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and marselan.

The Rothschilds and their team at Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite), or DBR, have spent more than a decade constructing what must be the best winery in China, leading the way for the future of fine Chinese wine. China is now the fifth biggest market in the world for wine and I estimate it will be No. 1 in the next five years. A big question will be if Chinese consumers will drink the best wines of their country as well as top imported bottles.

“We believe in the future of Chinese wine and Chinese tourism in places such as Penglai,” said Saskia de Rothschild, head of DBR. Her modern winery with its clean and well-defined Asian architecture is unique in the region where kitsch fake chateaux and castles, even a mock coliseum, dominate the skyline of hillsides and vineyards. Now just before the harvest, tourists are sparse and there seems to be some doubt about when and where wine tourists will be going. However, this wine region begins just a few minutes from the Yantai wine region and continues for about 220 kilometers to Qingdao – it clearly could live up to its local nickname of the “Napa Valley of China.” I flew from Seoul to Yantai in an hour and was in the vineyards 30 minutes later at Long Dai. 

The 2017 Long Dai is an excellent debut from the label.

Long Dai to focus on local China sales

However, despite a beautiful visitors’ center and wine tasting area, the Rothschilds are most interested in making one of the best wines in China and selling wine in China. “We want to focus the sales of our wine in China and to help educate and grow the Chinese market,” says Jean-Guillaume Prats, CEO of DBR. Most of the $200 a bottle Long Dai 2017 will be sold in China through French wine and spirits giant Pernod Ricard.

I spent a morning with the Rothschild team walking through the vineyards, talking and tasting and the professionalism and dedication is unparalleled, especially in China. It’s almost hard to believe how much dedication and patience it has taken to put together such superb vineyards; nearly 30 hectares of mostly cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and marselan. The knowledge and equipment needed to be imported and integrated into the local culture must have been an incredible challenge.

“It’s sometimes hard to communicate your goals and purpose for winemaking here,” admits Olivier Tregoat, technical director of DBR, whose enthusiasm for the project is inspiring. The pristine vineyards say it all.

Such problems have always been part of the local wine scene, even in 1987 when I first visited the area for a cover story on Chinese wine for The Wine Spectator and there was only one serious winery in the region called Huadong. Modern winemaking has only taken hold in the last decade and the concept of a domain or estate produced wine is still not the norm. Most wine producers use foreign wine in their blends and bottlings.

“If you farm well and you have excellent grapes then you make excellent wines,” says the former CEO of DBR, Christophe Salin, who began the project with the Rothschilds in the late 2000s. This to me is indeed the key to the success of Long Dai.

Quality and weather improving

DBR technical director Olivier Tregoat and JamesSuckling.com publisher Meaghan Qian-Fu Becker discuss rootstocks in one of the Long Dai vineyards.

It’s fascinating to walk the different vineyards, about 60 plots in total, and understand the different soils, expositions and microclimates and how DBR and their local Chinese crew of a few dozen maintain their vineyards. Many of the vines are planted in terraces along the hillsides. Extensive thought and studies have gone into planting the best rootstocks and grape types in specific plots. Everything is done by hand with an average of one worker per hectare. 

Recent changes in climate have also helped produce better wines. The mid-summer monsoons have shortened in time and intensity, making it easier to grow clean grapes. September and October seem warmer than usual with more fresh winds.

DBR has produced wine in the region for almost a decade but is only releasing wine now under its Long Dai label. “The quality was not good enough before,” says Tregoat. “We distilled everything before 2017. The 2016 was good but not good enough because of the wet weather.”

I tasted the bottled 2017 as well as a barrel sample of the 2018. Both are excellent. The 2017 is one of the best Chinese wines I have ever tasted with an acute drinkability from the balance and brightness of fruit and tannins. It’s important to note that DBR had the courage to include 25 percent marselan (a cross of cabernet sauvignon and grenache) in the blend. It’s a grape I have high hopes for in China – I have tasted top wines in Uruguay made from marselan. The 2018 Long Dai is also an excellent wine in the making.

It’s interesting that in the world of Chinese wine, Shandong is often not taken as seriously as regions such as Ningxia, which are more highly esteemed. I think the quality of Long Dai’s new wine should change this perception. – James Suckling, CEO & Editor

2017 Long Dai Qiu Shan 瓏岱丘山

Extremely perfumed with hazelnut, dried flower, currant and berry. Some cranberry too. Full body, extremely soft and velvety with a reserved and refined character at the finish. Polished and creamy texture. Some minerally undertones. Succulent and long with a juicy finish. It’s linear and long with air. Distinguished. Already very drinkable but better in 2022.

94 points