Top 10 Chinese wines of 2020

Last week, we published our 2020 Ningxia wine report rating 129 notes from this emerging wine region that has come a long way in just a few years. As Chinese wine takes big strides with quality while it becomes more diverse, we think it is time to take a closer look at some of the top bottles we found last year. Here are the top 10 Chinese wines we tasted in 2020, with appellations stretching from Ningxia, Shandong and Yunnan to Hebei.

Our Chinese wine of the year is the Ao Yun Shangri-La 敖云云南香格里拉 2016, which comes from a distant part of China’s southwest. This wine shows the harmony of ripeness and freshness of a sound 2016 vintage described as “the coolest year until mid-July, followed by a very sunny, hot and dry season in August” by Maxence Dulou, the winemaker at this premium producer. The LVMH-owned winery is located in a remote Xanadu of Himalayan terroir and its grapes come from a mosaic of 314 plots between 2,200m-2,600m above sea level. It is also the first year that Ao Yun added some syrah and petit verdot planted in 2013, with the reduced involvement of new oak (around 35%), giving the wine “a heartfelt utterance of the terroir.” It makes 2016 even more intriguing than the dense, powerful 2015, an equally outstanding wine but riper and more loaded with density.

Long Dai Qiushan 瓏岱丘山 2018, in second place, is an invigorating result of another French investment: DBR-Lafite, whose Chateau Lafite 1982 has an unparalleled high profile in China and was first discovered by people when it featured in a movie starring Chow Yun Fat. That legend has continued with this interpretation of Shandong’s Qiu Shan Valley’s terroir, some 20 km away from the Yellow Sea. The vineyards enjoy a warm climate moderated by the ocean, which provides the ultra-fine tannins and a lengthy finish to this blend of cabernet sauvignon, marselan and cabernet franc. Shandong also produced an outstanding chardonnay that we believe is the best rendition of the grape we have so far discovered. Chateau Nine Peaks Chardonnay Qingdao Qi 九顶庄园霞多丽青岛氣 2018 (No. 6) is a full-bodied chardonnay that shows engaging transparency, freshness, and focus.

Ningxia remains the stronghold for China’s quality wines, with Jade Vineyard, Helan Qingxue, Kanaan Winery, and Silver Heights running ahead with some of the more serious cabernets and Bordeaux blends. Jade Vineyard Ningxia Messenger Reserve 嘉地酒园信使干红 2016 (No. 3) was our top wine from Ningxia in 2020 and scored 95 pts. This producer shows an unremitting pursuit of quality, which comes through in this cabernet sauvignon as a wonderful interplay between calculated ripeness and multi-layered complexity, building them up in a crescendo upon the structured and beautifully polished tannin. Jade Vineyard’s first vintage of marselan, Jade Vineyard Marselan 2019 is also stunning with its dense fruit and brooding depth but sees no oak. We look forward to tasting it again soon from bottle to confirm its quality. The only marselan wine that has scored higher at JamesSuckling.com to date was from Huailai of Hebei – Domaine Franco-Chinois Marselan Reserve 2014, which we tasted in 2019, and is not included in this list. But Domaine Franco-Chinois’s sister winery Canaan Wine Estate from the same appellation offered the best deal with its Chapter and Verse Riesling Hebei Huailai Mastery 诗百篇怀来特选雷司令 2018 (No. 7), which I believe represent some of the greatest value from China with a retail price just over RMB200 ($30). This zippy, dry riesling is sourced from a vineyard located 900m above sea level, showing the floral, aromatic quality of the grape and complexity, threaded by a bright, tangy acidity in a bone-dry and slightly austere palate. It is an excellent example of how seemingly paradoxical elements in a bottle of wine can work out and mingle. Could it give the Germans something to think about?

In Ningxia, Helan Qingxue and Kanaan Winery made fantastic wines from 2016, which was a ripe but more “unanimous” vintage, according to Zhang Jing, the winemaker of Helan Qingxue, who debuted the Helan Qingxue Vineyard Ningxia Jiabeilan Grand Reserve 贺兰晴雪加贝兰特别珍藏 2016 (No. 4). “What I liked about it is the finely ground, evenly formed tannins that caress the palate, which is hedonistic yet dimensional, something I hardly had in any of our wines before,” said Jing. It also bears the vintage’s glossy plushness with ripe and minty berry fruit involved, but is still fresh and inviting. As one of the three co-founders of Helan Qingxue along with Rong Jian and Zhang Jing, Wang Fengyu also founded Kanaan Winery in 2010, which is now run by his daughter Wang Fang, otherwise known as Crazy Fang for her frankness and hearty laughter. Her nickname later became the name for the top wine from the estate. The two producers are close neighbors within walking distance of each other, but the style of Kanaan is more assertive with a more “international” appeal. The Kanaan Winery Ningxia Crazy Fang 迦南美地魔方红葡萄酒 2016 in fifth place is another cabernet sauvignon and one of our top-scoring Chinese reds.

There are three other wines from Ningxia that show promising diversity and managed to angle away from the mainstream style of cabernet sauvignon and its blends. Emma Gao of Silver Heights, who now runs her vineyards biodynamically, produced a staggering rendition of pinot noir, which cleared out my misgivings of Ningxia’s potential for this thin-skinned, finicky grape. The Silver Heights Pinot Noir Ningxia Jiayuan 银色高地家园黑皮诺 2017 (No. 10) showed vibrant acidity with ethereal, forest floor fruit cosseted by a fresh and linear palate. After some aging, the spicy, mealy oak will find more integration with the red-berry fruit, as it already mingled nicely in its lengthy, airy finish.

Domaine Charme Viognier Ningxia 夏木庄园维欧妮干白 2019 (No. 8) is a bright, zesty rendition of viognier full of energy with peachy, floral aromatics. The chalky edge in the finish gives it another layer that shows an appetizing austerity against its aromatic character. Despite the difficulties of planting viognier in Ningxia, it appears to be one of the region’s best values, retailing around RMB240($35). Hopefully the price will remain reasonable.

I had to make a difficult choice between the top cabernet gernischt, a grape that has more than a century of history in China, and the top syrah we tasted in 2020 for this top 10 list. With its focused nose of peppery, haw fruit, cumin spices and dried herbs, the Xige Estate Cabernet Gernischt Ningxia Jade Dove Single Vineyard 西鸽酒庄玉鸽单一园蛇龙珠 2018 (No. 9) has a slight edge in volume and value over the Sweet Dew Limited Edition Syrah 2017, a deep, spicy and engaging syrah made by Liang Ning, a young but very serious winemaker who now leads his family business after spending years working in Helan Qingxue. While these wines show the potential of viognier, cabernet gernischt and syrah in the region, the credit should be given to new wineries now overseen by younger winemakers, which suggests that Ningxia’s bright future for quality wine has yet to arrive.

The riesling and viognier from this list show how reasonable Chinese wines can be with outstanding quality. In contrast, many Chinese wines ambitiously target the high end of the market. The top five in the list fetch a premium price (from $150-$300 a bottle), but they also have the premium quality to go with it. Now, consumers will decide if super premium Chinese wines have a place in the market.

– Zekun Shuai, associate editor

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