Douglas Blyde journeys along the fledgling Chinese wine route

China is often overlooked when it comes to wine — but the country is producing a growing number of quality bottles, as I discovered on a recent visit.

Ningxia, an ancient, mountainous region nudging the Gobi Desert in northern China, has built a major wine industry in just two decades, replete with a government-endorsed wine road. Irrigated by the Yellow River, chic and extravagant wineries include Chandon’s sparkling wine-oriented outpost. The main building resembles a horizontal skyscraper surrounded by vines (intended to evoke the flat and arid land surrounding). Inside, the red-accented interiors are inspired by the shades of wine and by Chinese culture.

Another, the elegant fortress-like Château Yuanshi, is run by young winemaker Yang Weiming who studied at the prestigious Suze La Rousse in France.

Arguably the most imposing winery in Ningxia, however, is Château Changyu Moser XV, overseen by 15th-generation Austrian winemaker and consultant, Lenz M Moser. The flamboyant château, which cost £62m to build, features frescoes and well-nourished vineyards of thick-skinned Cabernet, producing wines good enough to lure well-heeled homeland drinkers away from an estimated yearly output of 10 billion litres of grain spirit, baijiu.

Moser — who has visited China 49 times — praises the country’s energy. The region’s ‘Achilles heel’ is its vineyards, he explains, ‘which aren’t trained the way we’d like because of lack of knowledge’. However, he adds: ‘Give us five to 10 years, you can already taste the future…’