What do the inaugural Chinese Wine Awards reveal about the country’s wine industry?

There are between 700 and 800 wineries in China today, depending on how you count them. Less than 110 of those are designated a ‘well-sized enterprise’ in the Chinese government statistics (meaning with a turnover of more than 20 million RMB, or €2.5 million).

This number is down from 244 at the industry’s height in 2017, reflecting a contraction that was not helped by China’s wider economic issues and extended border closures, but it may prove to be an important step in the maturing of the country’s wine industry. The one that remain have proved resilience – and although we don’t yet know the identities of the 800 registrations from 200 wineries in the inaugural Chinese Wine Awards, we can assume that many of the country’s biggest names were among them.

Held at Wynn Macau from March 1-5, the competition saw 27 judges blind tasting wines that were entered from 14 regions of China, with Price Waterhouse Cooper acting as auditors. Up to 30 trophies will be announced on April 13, with just one to be crowned the Best of China.

We were here to find the most exciting wines in the country, meaning ones with a distinctive personality, ageing potential, offering a reason for consumers to seek it out. There were many that fit that description, and the event also provided a fascinating opportunity to catch up with the changes in the Chinese wine scene. Covid meant that I hadn’t been back since November 2019. Besides France, Asia is the part of the world that I have spent the most time outside of the UK. I lived in Japan then Hong Kong from 1993 to 1997, and since then wine has brought me back regularly, whether for the Shanghai Fine Wine Encounter with Decanter, or Vinexpo Hong Kong, or visiting wine regions including Ningxia, Shandong and Shangri-La.

I wasn’t sure, to be honest, exactly what to expect. Although wines such as Ao Yun, Long Dai and Grace Vineyard’s Chairman Reserve have proved the potential of Chinese wines, the industry has still yet to make a serious impression on a global stage. Last time I was in Ningxia, in 2018, I noted the ambition and drive of the winemakers, but also found plenty of signs that basic winemaking best-practice was not always being followed. The main issues at the time were TCA in corks, premature ageing or colour-loss in young wines, and harsh acidity levels. One of the most modern wineries I visited had left barrels empty without cleaning sufficiently, and had allowed acetic acid to take hold. Further issues seemed to arise from well-meaning and often high-profile external consultants who didn’t spend enough time training cellar staff to continue with the job in their absence.

As a whole across the competition, we found very few of these type of faults, and were given fascinating updates on the progress of the industry from experts such as Fongyee Walker MW, Professor Huiqin Ma of China Agricultural University in Beijing and Janet Wong, author of The Chinese Wine Renaissance.

I summarise here some of the key advances, and offer first thoughts on the wines tasted.

Chinese wine industry in 2024

• Between 700 and 800 wineries in China today.
• World’s biggest grape producer, but the vast majority is for the production of table grapes, with wine grapes representing just 15% of overall production (plantings are slightly higher, but yields are lower for wine grapes, so reducing this overall percentage).
• Wine has been produced in China for over 7,000 years according to current archaeological evidence, with multiple grape varieties native to the country.
• The leading wineries today in terms of production remain Great Wall and Changyu Pioneer Wine Co.
• Recent improvements have come from a greater understanding of viticulture that is specific to wine grapes, as opposed to directly transposed from table grape production, with better-selected clones, more virus testing, less mixing of varieties in the vineyards, precision viticulture.
• Cultivars and nurseries are also improving, where previously lots of varieties were incorrectly identified, with lots of mixed plantings in old vineyards.
• Grape harvest dates also improved, with more precision according to different varieties and terroirs, picking dates usually now pushed back to September or October, with winemakers helping in harvest by tasting the grapes, which did not always happen before.
• Significantly improved approach to burying the vines during winter, which remains necessary in most Chinese wine regions. Today this process is 100% mechanised, with better training systems in place that take into account the stress burying places on the vines.
• In the wineries, there has been a diversification of fermentation containers allowing smaller-scale vinification, better understanding of hygiene, and more automation.
• Wine diversity has hugely increased, largely driven by consumer demand, so different colours and styles are now more common (we tasted red, white, sparkling, rosé and orange wines).
• Traditional varieties – often introduced in the 1950s from Russia – are also on the rise, such as Dragon’s Eye, Saperavi, Rkatsiteli and Rose Honey, along with Chinese breeding grapes like Beimei and Beihong, and also dating back to the 1950s (I suggest reading Ian d’Agata’s excellent overview for background on this).
• Research from universities is now also having a greater impact on the winemaking landscape, improving understanding on grapes and winemaking that is specific to China, with local-developed yeast strains for example.
• Leading Chinese winemakers are from a younger generation that has travelled widely, and worked vintages across major international regions.

A few thoughts following the judging

• Cabernet Sauvignon still rules in terms of psychological and physical dominance in the vineyards. It formed by far the largest grape represented in the competition. I was particularly impressed by Cabernets from Xinjiang, especially the Yili Valley, which showed great consistency, with many excellent examples from both Yunnan and Ningxia (although both of these had some low points also).
• Marselan (which was first planted in China in 2001 at Domaine Franco-Chinois in Huailai, Hebei Province, by winemaker Li Demei, and now accounts for 300ha of the country’s plantings) was probably the most interesting grape that I tasted in terms of potential for the industry, with its distinctive brambled fleshy fruit  character, and deep colour. One of my wines of the week (again, I don’t know the identity) was a 100% Marselan from Hebei, and there were some excellent Marselan-Cabernet Sauvignon blends.
• Ningxia remains the dominant region, with the highest number of entries – helped by the huge investment the local government has made in supporting the industry.
• Cabernet Gernischt I found more challenging, although I know there are widespread plantings.
• There were some excellent white wines, with some standout examples from Shandong, with particular interest for Chardonnay and Petit Manseng, and although this represents a small part of the industry to date, there is huge potential.
• Although the vast majority of wines tasted were in excellent condition, a few of the winemaking issues that I found in Ningxia back in 2018 were still apparent. The most usual was oxidation, which is clearly a closure issue rather than winemaking. There was very little TCA, a reflection of the huge advances made in cork quality over the past five years. Perhaps the most striking winemaking fault that I found was clumsy acid adjustment, as winemakers adjusted the often naturally low acidities of the wines with too much tartaric acid at the wrong point in the winemaking process.