Did natural wine find its biggest ally in China?
China's top oenologist Li Hua, known as "father of modern Chinese wine", just endorsed natural wine and urged winemakers in the country to make low-intervention and chemical-free wines.
China’s top oenologist Li Hua, who founded the country’s first viticulture and oenology school, is now firmly throwing his weight to support natural wine, a trendy and sometimes divisive category in the wine world.
Natural wine, once a fringe wine category derided by most traditionalists in the wine world, is now gaining steam in the world’s 7th biggest wine producer. There’s no clear-cut definition of the wine category, and it’s still a hair-splitting subject that can divide wine world, but generally it’ refers to wines that are made from organic vines, with indigenous yeast without additives.
As we have reported in depth here on Vino Joy News, Li made the comments at the 17th Annual Conference of the Chinese Institute of Food Science and Technology (CIFST) and urged winemakers in China to make low intervention and chemical free wines as a solution for sustainable and high-quality development of the country’s ailing winemaking industry.
Li’s call will most likely carry a lot of weight in China’s winemaking community. Being the country’s first overseas student to obtain a doctorate degree in viticulture in Bordeaux in 1980s, Li’s influence on China’s viticulture is likened to the late Émile Peynaud to modern oenology.
He founded China’s first viticulture and oenology school at Northwest A&F University in 1980s after returning from France. His study on the country’s typography helped pinpoint China’s then emerging wine regions namely, Ningxia, Gansu, Shaanxi in northwestern China and Sichuan in southwestern China.
Today, these wine regions are home to some of the country’s top and most progressive wineries such as Puchang, Silver Heights, Legacy Peak, Xige and high-altitude wineries in Sichuan.
Will his latest pivot to natural wine help boost the country’s wine production and inspire Chinese winemakers to follow his call? Is natural wine really the future for China?
Let us hear your thoughts in comments!