What has been said in public.

Decanter is the public record most of these pages lean on, because the medal tables are not behind a paywall. In 2011 Helan Qingxue’s Jia Bei Lan won an International Trophy, the result Jancis Robinson and later Decanter coverage both treat as the first time a Chinese wine took that prize.

In 2025 China won its first Best in Show awards. Best in Show replaced the International Trophy in 2016. The two wines were Dongfang Yuxing’s Geruihong Yeguangbei 2022, from Hongsipu in Ningxia, at 97 points, and Changyu Noble Dragon N188 2022, from Yantai. Decanter China says they were the only Asian wines in that year’s top 50. Li’s Estate Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 took a Platinum, also at 97. Pernod Ricard Helan Mountain Xiao Feng Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 took a Gold at 95. Dongfang Yuxing’s Geruihong Marselan 2024 took a Gold marked Top Value.

The same results coverage credits Ningxia with 81 medals: one Best in Show, one Platinum, five Gold, 31 Silver and 43 Bronze. Nationally, Decanter China counted 181 Chinese medals. Tasting notes on the award pages are not copied here.

Suckling has published two Ao Yun notes that can be cited without opening a paywall. The 2018, tasted in Hong Kong with Maxence Dulou, received 98 points, then the highest score he had given a Chinese wine. Dulou said the vintage was better than 2016 and 2017. The 2020, tasted by senior editor Zekun Shuai, is described as the site’s top score for a Chinese wine and the freshest Ao Yun so far: lower pH, more acidity. The report recalls 93 points for the 2013. The numeric score for the 2020 is not stated in the summary used here, so it is not filled in.

His Ningxia report, “Asia’s answer to Bordeaux is blossoming”, is the other piece worth reading in full. It discusses Helan Qingxue and Zhang Jing, including a Malbec trial and a 2019 promotion to Second Growth; Kanaan and Wang Fang’s Cabernet blends and Riesling; and Lingering Clouds. Of about 150 Chinese wines in that tasting, 55 percent scored 90 or above. He contrasts that with Grace Vineyard Chairman’s Reserve 2006, scored 86 when he was still at Wine Spectator, which had been the memorable Chinese wine of an earlier decade.

A retailer, JC Fine Wines, lists 93 points from Suckling for Silver Heights Jiayuan Marselan 2023, tasted in October 2025. That number is the shop’s citation. It is not taken from a JamesSuckling.com tasting note.

Four free articles do most of the work. “China’s most promising wine province?” (2012) is the Ningxia overview: desert between the Yellow River and the Helan Mountains, vines from the late 1990s, Chandon’s sparkling project, Pernod Ricard’s Helan Mountain, and the older names Changyu, COFCO Great Wall, Dynasty and Xi Xia King. It also places Gérard Colin at Grace Vineyard and then with Lafite in Shandong.

“The vinification of Ningxia”, first published in 2012 and republished on 14 November 2019, is the companion piece: government backing under Cao Kailong, cool September and October ripening, and the Ningxia Winemakers Challenge.

“Chinese wine – catching up fast” reports a blind tasting. The faults she names are crude oak and sweetened reds. The standouts were Kanaan, which she rated best overall; Château Nine Peaks Cabernet Sauvignon 2011, with St-Émilion links; Silver Heights; Helan Qingxue; and, from Xinjiang, Zhongfei and Skyline of Gobi.

“Who’s writing about wine in China?” maps the media. Janet Wang praises the online voice of Grace, Changyu and Silver Heights. Edward Ragg MW is introduced as The Wine Advocate’s reviewer for China. After the anti-corruption campaign, Robinson writes, wineries had to sell rather than wait for banquet orders. A later Ao Yun 2021 note by Richard Hemming MW is on the site; the score is paywalled. The site holds 19 Ao Yun reviews. A retailer has claimed that Silver Heights once held Robinson’s top Chinese score, in a 2010 review; that claim was not checked against her site and is not repeated as fact.

Edward Ragg MW reviews China for The Wine Advocate. The reviews themselves are on robertparker.com and require a subscription. This page does not quote them.

What is public is a report in The Drinks Business in March 2024. On Ao Yun 2020, Ragg found the wine less sumptuous than the 2019, but elegant, polished and powerful, and able to age for 15 years or more. The score was not published. The same piece is the source for Ao Yun’s release through La Place de Bordeaux.

Robinson’s media essay is the other public pointer: it introduces Ragg as the Advocate’s China reviewer. If you subscribe, his notes are the ones to read. If you do not, the Drinks Business paraphrase is as far as a free citation honestly goes.

The article to read is Liz Thach’s “Chinese Wine Region Establishes Classification Modeled on Bordeaux”, in the issue of 30 April 2014. It reports Ningxia’s five-tier classification, modelled on 1855 and renewed every two years.

The historic score people still quote — Grace Vineyard Chairman’s Reserve 2006 at 86 — was given by James Suckling when he was a Wine Spectator editor. The figure used here comes from his later JamesSuckling.com report, which cites that review, not from a Spectator tasting note copied out of the archive.

Thach also wrote, on her own site, about the 2012 tasting of 39 Ningxia wines organised by Jim Boyce and judged by Jancis Robinson, Georg Riedel and others. That is a blog, not a Spectator column, and it is the best public account of the tasting.