Feedback From Fans, January 2023

@winingawaytheweekend | Happy Lunar New Year of the Rabbit

Repost from @winingawaytheweekend

Happy Lunar New Year of the Rabbit wishing you all the prosperity and happiness! To celebrate, I thought I’d open this extraordinary bottle from Ningxia in China. Changyu was founded in China in 1892 by Zhang Bishi. All those years ago, Bishi saw the potential and imported more than 500,000 vines from the US and Europe, & so began Chinese wine production. This wine comes from a relatively new venture, it’s called Chateau Changyu Moser XV and a joint venture with Austria’s Lenz Moser. This is from Lenz’s first vintage (I think,) 2016, and called ‘Purple Air Comes from the East’ when translated. It is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and has seen some oak. So what do I think! It’s quite dark in my house but there’s a very slight tawny rim to the purple hue of this wine. Very fresh on the nose, some cassis, hawthorn, crushed nettles and almost a doughy caramel. (My house is quite cold and it’s taking some time to warm up so check back later for more.) On the palate it’s very different, very ‘proper’. Smooth, extremely well balanced, fresh red fruits, raspberry mostly, the spiced hawthorn note is still there and a freshly baked brownie on quite a short finish, not necessarily a bad thing. A very serious wine! I feel very lucky this year already to have tried it. I will let you research for pricing…