Kanaan Winery

Kanaan is regarded as one of China's finest wineries, set at the foot of the Helan Mountains in Ningxia, a thousand kilometres west of Beijing. Founded in 2011 by Fang Wang, daughter of a pioneering local viticulturist, its name means the land of milk and honey. Fang is affectionately known as Crazy Fang for her boldness in starting a winery with no prior experience. Ningxia is an extreme place to grow wine. Winters are so harsh that each vine must be buried by hand in November and unearthed the following April, while the sandy soils allow the vines to grow on their own roots. Kanaan farms close to seventeen hectares, tended entirely by hand, planted with Cabernet Sauvignon, Riesling, Merlot and Chardonnay. Fang's years in Germany gave her a lasting love of Riesling, and her dry, precise example is a rarity in China, full of lime, green apple and blossom. The flagship Pretty Pony, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot aged in French barriques, shows bright blackcurrant fruit and finely structured tannins. The horses on the label nod to the Helan Mountains. Characterful, pure and quietly ambitious, Kanaan's wines are among the most exciting to emerge from China. They combine generous fruit with real finesse and a strong sense of place. This is a producer very much worth discovering.