Domestic wine with a global passport
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[Photo provided to China Daily] |
The chateau and its wines are named after the company's Austrian winemaking consultant Laurenz "Lenz" Moser and his family: the Moser lineage can be traced back 15 generations, but it was Lenz Moser's grandfather, Lenz Moser III, who became an icon in the industry for growing grapes horizontally on wires, producing a more uniform and quality harvest, instead of letting vines race for the sky. The winemaking family has since also helped popularize aging in barrique, 225-liter barrels as opposed to commonly used barrels of 400- to 700-liter capacity. The relatively smaller barrels allow more of the wine to be in direct contact with the wood.
Lenz Moser has been a consultant and winemaking adviser to Changyu since 2005, has been coming to China "in spurts" for most of that decade, but last fall－on his 28th trip to the country, he camped out in Ningxia for a solid three months.
The Chinese corporation unveiled Chateau Changyu Moser XV in Ningxia in 2013, a more than 500-million-yuan ($77-million) project that took two years to build. It houses an 800-barrique cellar, a high-tech bottling line and a museum illustrating the history of the company and of winemaking in China.
"The spirit in China excites me to the max－people in Ningxia are hungry for something, but for all that, friendly," he says over a bowl of noodles last week in a local cafe.
"We're still in the early days of wine in China－the pioneering days. It's the Wild West－that's why it's so exciting. In Europe, the formulas are set. Here I have a chance to think outside the box."
Today Moser is playing proud papa, alongside "my good friend Mr Fan", as the bottles bearing Moser's family name chug along an assembly line. Besides export orders for major European distributors, made their way to the recent London Wine Week and the Vinexpo 2016 in Hong Kong.
But while savoring the winery's five current export offerings, ranging from the white Italian riesling (150 yuan or $23) to the top red－2013 Chateau Changyu Moser XV (750 yuan)－h(huán)e's already looking ahead.
"2013 was a beautiful year for wines here," he says with a sigh. "But 2015 will be even better."
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