Moet Hennessy to bottle first Chinese red wine

Moet Hennessy Estates & Wines, producers of wines including Cloudy Bay and Cheval des Andes, is due to bottle its highly anticipated Chinese red wine within the next few weeks, with an international launch due for Autumn 2015.

Vineyards in Yunnan province near to the Tibetan border, where Moet Hennessy is producing a Chinese red wine.

The wine, which is grown in the Himalayan mountains in the northern reaches of China’s Yunnan province close to the border with Tibet, is made with Cabernet Sauvignon grown at altitudes between 2,200 metres and 2,600 metres above sea level.

Although an exact launch date is not yet decided, it is likely to be October 2015 in Europe and the US, then China in January 2016.

‘We spent four years searching for the right location for quality red wine was in China,’ Estates & Wines president Jean-Guillaume Prats told Decanter.com. ‘There are many logistical challenges to producing in this remote mountainous region, but the long-growing season and dry sunny Autumns give thick-skinned, small berries with concentration and freshness’.

The name of the wine is Ao Yun, which means sacred cloud, referring to the sacred Meili Mountain that provides the backdrop for the vineyards.

Read more about Moet Hennessy’s winery in Yunnan province in the next Anson on Thursday column, out 30 April. 

Written by Jane Anson