Chef Tam’s Seasons in Macau and 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana in Shanghai emerged as the overall winners from some 300 contenders in this year’s China Wine List of the Year Awards (CWLOTY). Shanghai’s Roosevelt House took top spot for best Chinese wine list.

The awards were given out during China Sommelier Summit 2026 last week in Shanghai, with CWLOTY co-founders Tommy Lam and Rob Hirsch and judges chair Toni Paterson in attendance.

In terms of Chinese wines, as a judge of the seven finalist lists, I counted labels from over 70 producers this year. Ningxia and Yunnan, though wines made countrywide featured, including lesser-known regions in Sichuan province and Gansu province.

This continued a trend about which I wrote last year:

“At one time, only Grace Vineyard and mega-producers like Changyu and GreatWall were typically on restaurant menus, if you could find any local wines at all.”

“This year? I counted a total of 34 wineries from eight regions / provinces on the six finalist menus.

“And not just wines featuring traditional Bordeaux varieties. We see Black Muscat, Marselan, Petit Manseng, Riesling, Vidal and more. And numerous wineries had multiple entries on multiple lists.”

(Full article at this link.)

This year’s growth wasn’t a case of one wine list loaded with Chinese wines skewing the numbers. Several lists featured 20-plus producers with dedicated sections for local wines, including information on different regions and styles.

One data point: Chef Tam’s Seasons listed Chardonnay by no fewer than 17 Chinese producers, including from Shandong, Shanxi, Ningxia, Sichuan and Yunnan. You would be hard put a decade ago to find a menu with 17 local producers in total, let alone with wines made from this one grape.

Along with Chef Tam’s Seasons, the other finalists in the best Chinese wine category were Somm’s Table and Fu Chun Ju, both in Beijing.

Other notable winners this year included:

Best List, Eastern China: 8½ Otto e Mezzo Bombana (Shanghai)

Best List, Northern China: Fu Chun Ju (Beijing)

Best List, Southern China: AVANT (Shenzhen)

Best List, Western China: InterContinental Chongqing Raffles City (Chongqing)

Best New List: Somm’s Table (Beijing)

Best Small / Medium List (Under 100 Wine): Mingjia Shenlan (Shandong)

Best Food & Wine Matching: Sheng Yong Xing, The Bund (Shanghai)

Best Chinese Spirits List: Chef Tam’s Seasons (Macau)

Check out the full list on the China Wine List of the Year website.

Many other trends for imported and local wines continued this year, thus my detailed analysis of last year’s lists might prove useful.

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