CHATEAU RONGZI, SHANXI PROVINCE

Though exported globally, outside China, Chateau Rongzi has largely been overshadowed by its fellow Shanxi winery Grace Vineyard, except when Rongzi’s esteemed Yellow Label appears on “most expensive” lists (at RMB3,000+ a bottle, it belongs there). In fact, before sourcing the wines for this article I had yet to taste Rongzi, which is named for an ancient Jin dynasty (266-420 AD) matriarch thought to be China’s first winemaker.

I could not have been more pleasantly surprised by both the quality and style, which is the quintessence of polish. A mere 13% ABV, this is a wine that sashays rather than plods. Remembering that the head winemaker is Jean-claude Berrouet, veteran of 44 vintages of Pétrus, it all makes sense. Unlike the merlot-based Pétrus, Rongzi is cabernet sauvignon-based, and farmed between 950 and 1,300m above sea level on the Loess Plateau. Berrouet doubtless has ample resources to work his magic, given the winery was famously founded with an initial investment of RMB1.3 billion in 2008.

PATRICIAN LOTUS 2018

This wine is one I was unable to even locate online but was sent to me by the winery to taste. Like the Yellow Label, it delivers a panoply of flavours and sensations: celery leaf and a whisper of red chilli abut lush black cherry and blood orange, leaving a moist earth, cacao, cigar box and black truffle trail. Satiny tannins and fine-boned acidity step up a beat after the fruit has washed away. Blend: 68.4% cabernet sauvignon, 16.4% cabernet franc, 15.1% marselan, 0.1% merlot

ELEGANT YELLOW LABEL 2013

As well as the qualities alluded to earlier, Yellow Label boasts an endlessly fascinating nose of red paprika, graphite, verbena and pepper shading into red cherry, cassis and nutmeg. The charmeuse of the mid-palate billows outward before coming to fine, harmonious close. Blend: 81.5% cabernet sauvignon, 12.2% merlot, 4.3% cabernet franc