The high-altitude region of Deqin County aka Shangri-la in Yunnan province—the Chinese charactars for Yunnan mean “clouds” and “mountains”—is attracting attention from wine aficionados.
Feng Jian is involved in two intriguing wineries there, as the chief winemaker at Xiaoling Estate and as the founder of his own operation, Mingyi, in Adong Village at 2700 meters and Jiangpo Village at 2800 meters, featuring high-density vines and low yields.
Wines from both have crossed the 95-point threshold, for those who are counting, and Feng’s “Above The Creek” Chardonnay 2022 starred in a recent China vs The World tasting in Hong Kong.
In this Q&8, I ask Feng Jian what differentiates Yunnan from other Chinese wine regions, how he found his ideal vineyard, the future of the hybrids brought here by nineteenth-century European missionaries, and more.
Grape Wall: Let’s start with Xiaoling Estate. These wines have ranked for nearly a decade among what I call the region’s “Grand Crunnan”, the kind of wines that earn high scores and praise from critics, and that sell at high prices. What is the key to maintaining this quality?
Feng Jian: The answer should be quite simple worldwide. The secret hides in the vineyard; not in the cellar. Xiaoling has spent a tremendous amount of time understanding the relationships among the local plants, soils, insects and vines.
We split the vineyard holdings into more than 40 tiny blocks and manage and ferment the grapes from each one separately. This gives each barrel an individual character that truly reflects where the grapes were grown.
You recently made a splash with the first wines from your own label, Mingyi. How did you find the ideal spot, especially given the vastness of Yunnan?
I’ve been working in this region since 2014, probably earlier than almost every other young winemaker of my generation. This provided me with the chance and time to explore village by village, block by block, and find the vineyard I would like to lease.
That early experience helps me understand very deeply what the region looks like and where the potential lies. The ensuing work is reasonably easy for our team.
With vineyards over 2000 meters high, sunshine over 2000 hours per year, a 200-day growing season, and plenty more, Shangri-la offers a unique environment for producers. How would you contrast it with other wine regions in China?
Yes, we have intense solar energy, which give us more proanthocyanin and other rich phenolic compounds in the grapes. But remember, it is the altitude and the variations within it that create hundreds of thousands of mesoclimates. This is so critical in making the growing of different grapes possible.
Imagine it only takes a 1.5-hour drive from a place where Cabernet Sauvignon gets picked in early September to one where Chardonnay ripens in late October. This is so crazy and charming: you would not see this in other regions of China.
Chardonnay from Xiaoling and Mingyi have been particularly well-received, with many people considering them the best in their class in China. And Yunnan Chardonnay in general has received much praise. What makes Chardonnay such a good fit for Yunnan?
I have no answer for that. Chardonnay is a quite versatile variety that can be grown almost everywhere on this planet. For me, the grapes choose their own place and we winemakers simply play the role of observers.
Part of the Yunnan wine story is hybrid grapes such as Rose Honey. What role do you see these varieties playing in the future of Yunnan wine?
We should remember this history because it is the origin of wine in the region.
Baco Noir, sometimes mistakenly identified as Rose Honey, was widely planted here 200 years ago. Xiaoling inherited the vineyard from Cizhong Church and continued to make wine from this grape—we felt it was the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, the planting area of this grape is declining. And it is not a vitis Vinifera grape—I’m not sure what will be its fate.
Making wine in Shangri-la also offers wild challenges, from washed-out access roads to being trapped by snow to maneuvering long winding roads along steep cliffs. How have you adapted to this?
Being here for so long, many things have stopped surprising me. [These things] happen from time to time and all we need to do is to have super-premium insurance in place and hope bad luck will not happen the day we hit the road.
One thing that always struck me about Ningxia is the quality and volume of wine production has sharply risen but not many consumers there drink or even know about these wines. To what degree is wine part of life in Shangri-la?
Our growers were not very fond of our product and called it “sour wine” even if it was highly rated on the other side of the world.
We have kept a habit of bottling some wine for people who helped the winery that year—normally our growers and their families. The acceptance is rising but wine is not part of Tibetan life. They have their own treasure—a distilled liquor from grain.
Shangri-la has an intriguing blend of producers. “Grand Crunnan” producers like Ao Yun and Xiaoling. Traveling winemakers such as Petit Mont and Xiaopu. Notable icewine producers like Pabala. The company Shangri-la itself, with a major proportion of the vineyards. And more. That’s a pretty diverse situation. How do you see this developing over the next decade?
We are in a very new region that only gained extensive attention in the past five years,
it is a good thing, at such an early stage, to see people with different backgrounds bring their talents here. But only time will prove and reward the individuals who are patient and consistently doing right thing.
After all, the nature of winemaking is agriculture and not gold mining. It will take at least several generations to build some legacy. Ten years is just the beginning.
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During the summer, Mingyi posted 70 restaurants and bars in eight cities in China that carry its wine–see the full list here.
Those carrying the wine outside of China include Fancy Cellars in Melbourne, which has ‘Above the Creek’ Chardonnay 2022 for $380.
Also check out this Q&8 with Bertrand Cristau of Xiaoling Estate. You can find all Grape Wall Q&8s here.
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