By Jim Boyce | The 2016 Decanter World Wine Awards results are out and 51 wines from 38 wineries in China have won recognition. Of the nearly 16,000 wines wines in the contest, 130 were given ‘platinum‘ status, including two from China: the ice wine Château Fenhe from winery Luyuan in Heilongjiang and Lux Regis R6 Merlot from winery Leirenshou in Ningxia.
Two Chinese wines won ‘silver‘ while the remaining 47 were awarded at the lower end of the spectrum with designations such as ‘bronze‘ or ‘commended‘. Overall, the Ningxia region led the way, having apparently entered the competition en masse, with 27 wines from 22 wineries receiving recognition.
While the contest has had Chinese entries for at least a decade, it generated global buzz in 2011 when Helan Qing Xue in Ningxia became the nation’s first winery to receive an ‘international trophy‘ (Not all of the buzz was positive as some commentators insinuated or suggested a link between the result and Decanter’s business aspirations in China or that the winning bottle had non-Chinese wine: see here for Decanter’s response. I also argued here why, regardless of the result, the winery had merit.)
In 2012, the magazine launched a second annual contest called the Decanter Asia Wine Awards. It’s now one of the biggest wine contest in Hong Kong, along with the Cathay-Pacific Hong Kong International Wine & Spirit Competition and the China Wine & Spirits Awards.
The China results from the 2016 Decanter World Wine Awards:
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