2009 Changyu Golden Valley Ice Wine, Blue Diamond Label, Liaoning

2009 Changyu Golden Valley Ice Wine, Blue Diamond Label, Liaoning

Product: 18602
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2009 Changyu Golden Valley Ice Wine, Blue Diamond Label, Liaoning

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Description

Changyu's Blue Label Ice Wine is made from the second press, and reaches 160g/l. A more intense wine than the Gold label, with a spicy honey note and a richer viscosity, with aromas of lychee and pear. Almost any flavour of ice cream works well (the acidity acts as a counterpoint) or cream cheeses.
Mark Pardoe - Wine Director

The Changyu Golden Ice Wine Valley is situated in the far north-east of China, in the Liaoning Province, close to the borders of North Korea and Russia. No, honestly. In particular it is the area around Huanlong Lake that has attracted the company’s attention; at an altitude of 380m and with the temperature moderated by that large body of water.

The grapes ripen well in summer but when the winter temperature drops to -8C (as required for ice wine production), this can be held naturally for 24 hours. The vineyards have been developed in partnership with Aurora, a Canadian wine company, themselves no strangers to ice wine.  Initially the Vidal grape variety has been planted, a hybrid cross of Ugni Blanc and Seibel, chosen for its hardiness. It would be interesting to see how Riesling would fare. This is the largest, commercial, regular production of ice wine in the world.

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Critics reviews

Jancis Robinson MW16.5/20
Vidal Blanc, RS 160 g/l. Golden. Beautiful smell of brûlée apples. Luscious, and the concentrated essence of flavour from apples that have ripened and become a little wrinkly in hay. Baked pineapple. The same dustiness as the Gold Diamond Label. It just lacks that electric current of acidity that you’d find in a Chenin or Riesling. A little heavy footed on the end.
Jancis Robinson - jancisrobinson.com - April 2013 Read more
Other
A very fine example with beautiful citrus intensity, grapefruit freshness with honeyed notes purity and good length. Very good – my favourite.
Rose Murray Brown, The Scotsman Magazine, 18 May 2013 Read more

About this WINE

Changyu Pioneer Wine Company

Changyu Pioneer Wine Company

Chinese commercial wine production began in 1892 when an overseas Chinese diplomat, Zhang Bishi, started his winery in Yantai. He imported half a million plants from the USA and appointed the Austrian consul, Freiherr von Babo, as his winemaker. Most of the plants failed to survive and history does not recount whether von Babo knew how to make wine, but nevertheless today the company is by far the biggest in the country, with a turnover of nearly US$800 million.

Château Changyu (or, to give it its full name, Changyu Pioneer Wine Company) is China’s oldest and largest wine producer, and among the top ten in the world in terms. The company has embarked on an extraordinary programme of building European-style châteaux, architecturally based on examples from Bordeaux and two of them are represented by Berry Bros. & Rudd; Ch. Changyu Moser in Ningxia (Yinchuan province), and Ch. Changyu Golden Ice Wine Valley in Liaoning (home to their ambitious Golden Valley ice wine project, Huanlong province) and further afield in Beijing and Shandong, all with international partners.

Château Changyu Moser XV was developed in consultation with Lenz Moser (pictured right), of the famous Austrian wine family, who has spent several years working with Changyu before identifying Ningxia as his preferred location, which he compares to the Mendoza wine region in Argentina in terms of climate and soil, and having his château built!

The Ch. Changyu Moser XV (90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot) has never been offered in the UK before (a previous incarnation on this market was made without Lenz’s involvement and featured China’s oddity Cabernet Gernischt in the blend). This site is also the first with some certified organic production, from 2011.  

Further afield, the extraordinarily remote region of Liaoning has very good conditions for ice wine and this huge estate is capable of producing 300,000 bottles per annum, using the Vidal variety. In Liaoning, three different grades are made, all on show here. The Gold Diamond label has some distribution in the restaurant market, but none have been previously available for the UK retail before BB&R imported it.

Find out more
Liaoning

Liaoning

The Changyu Golden Ice Wine Valley is situated in the far north-east of China, in the Liaoning Province, close to the borders of North Korea and Russia. In particular it is the area around Huanlong Lake is considered ideal for ice wine production. At an altitude of 380m and with the temperature moderated by that large body of water, the grapes ripen well in summer but when the winter temperature drops to -8C (as required for ice wine production), this can be held naturally for 24 hours. The brix of grape juice after crushis 350gr/litre which meets and even exceeds the standards of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine for ice wines.

For the giant Changyu wine company, vineyards have been developed in partnership with Aurora, a Canadian wine company, themselves no strangers to ice wine. Ch. Changyu is the home to their ambitious Golden Valley ice wine project.

Initially the Vidal grape variety has been planted, a hybrid cross of Ugni Blanc and Seibel, chosen for its hardiness. It would be interesting to see how Riesling would fare. This is the region with the largest, commercial, regular production of ice wine in the world.

Find out more