Villages, Heart of the Plain

At the foot of the Great Wall in Huailai, Hebei, Chengzi took over the vines his family had planted in 1999 to feed the big state wineries, and did something nobody expected: he stopped selling the fruit and started making natural wine. Since 2013 he has farmed organically, then biodynamically, and built his estate around Longyan, the indigenous 'dragon eye' grape China had spent decades dismissing as cheap material. This is his flagship, a skin-contact white built from two vintages: Longyan with Petit Manseng aged sixteen months in old oak from 2022, blended with Longyan and Chenin Blanc from 2023. Forty-five days on the skins, wild-yeast fermentation, no fining, no filtering, no added sulphur. Amber and textured, with dried orchard fruit, herb and a savoury, saline grip, it is a quiet argument for what northern China can do. The dandelion on the label, Taraxacum officinale, says the rest.