Jia Bei Lan Reserve 2017

Have you tried Chinese wine? How do Chinese reds compare to Bordeaux and other great wines from the rest of the world's wine regions?

Chinese wine does not have a long history nor a great reputation. My first Chinese red experience was really bad. It tasted overly sweet and thick, like cough syrup.

But the 2011 Decanter World Wine Awards turned out to be the game changer for Chinese wines. A Bordeaux-style wine from Ningxia, China beat wines from established wine-producing regions around the world, and won the "International Award”. The results were shocking, given that China's short wine history is dwarfed by the thousands of years of Bordeaux production. The competition instantly propelled Ningxia province into the international league, recognising it as a major wine-producing region of the world.

That wine was Jia Bei Lan, the first Chinese wine to win a top accolade in the world’s largest wine competition and impressively the winery Helan Qingxue planted its first vines only in 2005.

A friend brought a Jia Bei Lan Reserve 2017 for our University class gathering recently and we were all impressed. The wine was powerful yet refined and has a delightful freshness that shows the ageing potential of the wine. Compared to a Bordeaux, it feels softer and rounder but no less enjoyable.

I definitely see the rise of more high-quality Chinese wines like Jia Bei Lan. Try this and let me know your views.