Yunnan

Wine and missionaries

Wine reached northwest Yunnan with French Catholic missionaries, who arrived along the Mekong (Lancang) River in the 19th century and planted vines to make communion wine. In the village of Cizhong, where the church was rebuilt in 1914 after the original was burned down, a few families and the church still grow an old grape known as Rose Honey (玫瑰蜜) and make a dark, sweet red wine from it. Local tradition holds that the grape came from France and disappeared there with phylloxera; its exact origin is still debated.

Rose Honey is also grown in central Yunnan, around Mile, where the Yunnan Red Wine Company has made wine for decades from varieties with names such as Rose Honey, Crystal and French Wild. It is the province's oldest wine operation and a very different world from the high mountains of the northwest.

The search for Ao Yun

In 2002 the local authorities planted about 300 hectares of vines in Deqin County, in the high valleys of the Mekong. A few years later, Moët Hennessy (LVMH) asked Australian winemaker Tony Jordan to find the best place in China to make a world-class red wine. After a four-year search across the country, he chose a group of villages in this remote corner of Yunnan.

The result is Ao Yun, 'flying above the clouds'. Its grapes come from four villages, Adong, Xidang, Sinong and Shuori, at between 2,200 and 2,600 metres, divided into 314 small plots. The first vintage, 2013, was released in 2016: 24,000 bottles of a Bordeaux-style blend led by Cabernet Sauvignon. Because there was no electricity at first, that vintage was made entirely by hand. In 2022 Ao Yun 2018 became the first Chinese wine sold through La Place de Bordeaux, the négociant system that distributes the great Bordeaux châteaux.

Altitude and rain shadow

What makes these vineyards possible is the mountains themselves. The deep valleys lie in a rain shadow, so they are much drier than the surrounding highlands, and the vines are watered with snowmelt. The altitude brings intense sunlight and ultraviolet light, which thicken the grape skins, and very cool nights, which preserve freshness. The steep slopes and narrow valleys also limit the hours of direct sun, creating dozens of different microclimates within a short distance.

Grapes and styles

Cabernet Sauvignon dominates in the northwest, often blended with Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Syrah and Petit Verdot in the Bordeaux style. Around Mile, wineries still work with Rose Honey and the other historic varieties, alongside international grapes. Besides Ao Yun, the producers to know include Shangri-La Winery and Xiaoling Estate.