By Jim Boyce | Two weeks after winery Helan Qing Xue received an ‘international trophy’ from Decanter, a first for a Chinese producer, I joined Li Demei, chief consultant for the winning wine, on a trip to Ningxia, where the winery is based, and Xinjiang. At that time, Ningxia was still relatively unknown as a wine region and we met many of the people who were helping, and in many cases are still helping, to develop the industry, including China wine doyen Li Hua, Helan Qing Xue manager Rong Jian and winemaker Zhang Jing, thirty-year import and distribution veteran David Henderson, Helan Mountain (Pernod Ricard) winemaker Craig Grafton, and many more. Here are a dozen photos from the visit to Helan Qing Xue and to a winery that handled several brands, including Helan Mountain and Dragon’s Hollow. If you look closely at the vineyard photo, you can see the Helan mountain range in the background. The photo of the grape crates shows the name Helan Qing Xue being sprayed on. And the photo of winemaker Zhang Jing includes a barrel that has a footprint of her daughter and is a special edition of the Decanter award-winning wine.
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