WHITE CABERNET SAUVIGNON, WHAT???

Let Lenz tell you the story of an exceptional, surprising, certainly unique wine. Made in Ningxia/ PRC, in a special partnership of China’s power house Changyu and Lenz M. Moser, chief winemaker and strategist of Chateau Changyu Moser XV.  The background for this stunning new wine is and was lifelong experience in the wine industry, guts and a bit of luck.  

Today, 12 years ago the chateau was inaugurated with fanfare ( August 18th 2013 ). The entire Changyu top brass, Lenz and his daughter Sophie were present to open the doors to this beautiful chateau in Ningxia officially. A dream came true as this really fostered the special relationship between Changyu pioneer and the Lenz Maria Moser Family.

2 years later ( in 2015 ), in a game changing telephone meeting, the leaders of Changyu Mr Zhou-Chairman, and Mr. Sun CEO and Lenz, decided on the new vision of the Chateau Changyu Moser XV in Ningxia: ”Making wines belonging in the company of the world’s finest, being unique and innovative at the same time!” This bold thinking gave real birth of the chateau to the world.

When Lenz came to Ningxia in the summer of 2015 to take his new role as chief winemaker of Changyu moser XV, China was a red wine producing and red wine drinking country – to the tune of 90%. Of its consumption.  However, he knew that this red-white ratio was not sustainable. His grandfather ( Prof. Dr. Lenz Moser ) taught him that there are cycles in our industry – every 15-20 years consumers swing a bit more to the “other” color in wine. In China, the wine boom began in the late nineties – fostered by its leaders recommendation to drink more wine and the French paradox prod cast*** ( “60 Minutes on CBS, the New York network  ). China was beginning to enjoy wine, in form of red from the beginning. Well, by 2015 the red wine cycle in China was already trending towards the end ( although the figures did not show yet ) – also influenced by a global swing to whites then already.

Therefore and from day one Lenz was looking for a white in his range at the chateau. All he had to play with though was ca. 250 ha of Cabernet Sauvignon ( and veeery little white ). 2015, he embarked on his white wine mission in China with an Italian Riesling. While the wine was very good, fresh and zesty, it did not really convince customers and consumers. And,  Hungary ( Olasz Risling ) and Austria with its Welschriesling were already producing this grape. In 2016, he again, scratched his head and remembered his last vintage in Austria  in 1996 ( before joining the Robert Mondavi Family business in California for 9 years ). It was such a bad red wine vintage in the vineyards of a Lenz Moser estate that all he could get from a large 12 ha Cabernet Sauvignon vineyard was a “white” Cabernet – and helas, the wine was a  real stunner ! The 90.000 bottles produced sold out in 3 weeks. Problem was that 1997 was a great vintage for Austrian reds, Lenz was in California already ( to work with the Mondavi family ) – hence no more white Cabernet from Austria ever since.

So, from 2016 vintage at the chateau in Ningxia Lenz and the team there re-created the idea of white Cabernet, real innovation – long before the white wine boom became visible. It seems experience and a deep understanding of the market has some benefits ;-). Lenz & Co, for the first time in China, practically globally, used the smallest Cabernet Sauvignon berries in the world to make a Blanc de Noir, white wine. “The red wine lovers white was born”, Julien Sahut from Sexy Fish, London, at the time would call it. He sold it as Moser White. The beginning was tough – first year the chateau produced something like a pale rose. And yet, it sold extremely well, overseas. Every year the style of the wine got a little more refined, turning fast white completely – to culminate in the 2023 vintage which did excite 200% - at all levels from production to the consumer globally – including China. We mention China in particular as – at the speed of light – consumers now turn to white wines which is a new phenomenon in China, albeit overdue as mentioned earlier. The first and only white Cabernet in the world now comes from Ningxia, from the Chateau of Changyu Moser XV, and is certainly its signature wine.

It ticks all the boxes, well most. A completely new tasting sensation has entered the stage – cornucopia of exotic smells and flavours in a very harmonious and equally quaffable form. It takes a bit of fantasy, however, you can depict a bit from the floral odours from a German Riesling, peachy, passionfruit and fresh meadow flowers. On the palate it is pure hedonism, a mouth full of wine with again a lot of luscious elements, and still with the element  of freshness, long finish – longing for the next sip.

Today this wine is being sold in close to 50 countries around the world, be it in top restaurants/ wineshops of London to cool places in Dubai, or from Vienna to Paris. And of course now also in Asia, from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur where whites meanwhile are in high demand. It is and remains the first and only white cabernet in the entire wine world, gaining new friends and wine lovers on a daily basis. Expect more from the chateau, in every new year to come.