Helan Mountain, Ningxia
宁夏·贺兰山
Xige Estate · Jade Dove Single Vineyard Cabernet Gernischt 2021
Dark fruit and silky tannin, with a fresh herbal edge.
Chinese Wine of the Year 2025, James Suckling
02/ The living archive
A country learning to taste itself.
From imperial court cellars to experimental vineyards, Chinese wine has always been in motion. Today, growers are finding a vocabulary for place: Ningxia's mineral light, Shandong's maritime air, Yunnan's high mountain calm.
138 BCE to 907 CE
Vines on the Silk Road
Regions on the map: Xinjiang · Turpan, Gansu · Hexi Corridor
In 138 BCE the Han court sent Zhang Qian west to Central Asia. After his missions, Han envoys brought grape seeds home along the Silk Road and planted them near the capital. Farmers in the Turpan oasis, in today's Xinjiang, grew grapes before the Han arrived. After Tang armies took Turpan in 640, Emperor Taizong made wine at court from its grapes.
Read about the Silk Road vines1990s to 2010s
The first modern estates
Regions on the map: Ningxia · Helan Mountain
Ningxia's first winery opened in the mid-1980s, and by 1998 about 3,000 hectares of wine grapes grew on the foothills of the Helan Mountain. Smaller estates followed: Helan Qingxue in 2005 and Silver Heights in 2007. In 2011 the judges at the Decanter World Wine Awards gave an International Trophy to a Ningxia red, Helan Qingxue's Jia Bei Lan 2009.
Read about NingxiaToday
The road to Europe
Regions on the map: Shandong · Penglai, Yunnan · Shangri-La, Xinjiang · Turpan, Ningxia · Helan Mountain
Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) makes wine in Penglai on the Shandong coast, and Moët Hennessy grows Ao Yun on slopes up to 2,600 metres near Shangri-La. Since 2021 James Suckling has published a Top 100 Wines of China every year, and wines from Ningxia, Yunnan and Xinjiang have reached its top ten. Happy Dragon Wine is bringing a selection to the Benelux.
Read about the regions today