De Volkskrant | EEN CURIOSUM UIT CHINA
There are those wine stories for which this column has too little space. And I have already wasted 21 words of that! But here goes: Austrian enologist Lenz Moser became a partner at the Chinese Château Changyu 20 years ago; so he tells me by Zoom. The aim of the company was to make top wine, but only Cabernet Sauvignon was planted on the 450 hectares of vineyard – the Chinese did not hold white wine in high esteem. But Moser did. That is why there is now a white, made from red grapes, a 'blanc de noir'. The Helan Mountain Range 'barrique' is aged in oak, and is floral, exotic, beautifully balanced. And not just that, all wines are very skilfully made, concentrated and elegant. The red Helan Mountain Range with no barrique aging turns out to be clean, fresh and black, the Moser XV, with just a hint of oak is round and warming, rutting delicious. The showpiece is called Purple Air and comes from a vineyard at an altitude of 2300 meters between Beijing and Shanghai. Impressive level, impressive price too: € 195. With that, you could easily buy top wine from Saint-Estèphe, Moser's example.
A bit of a curiosity, this Chinese wine. But of sky-high quality.
Château Chanyu:
Helan Mountain Range blanc de noir barrel 2023, € 39,55
Helan Mountain Range cabernet sauvignon, € 18,95
Moser XV 2019, € 39,55
Grandcruwijnen.nl
Price/quality 8.5
