Wine Advisor
Xige Estate, N28 Chardonnay 2023
View analysis
Description
Established in 2017, Xige Winery is one of the most exciting emerging wine projects in China. The West Pigeon Winery is a new, modern winery with more than 1,300 hectares of vineyards, of which more than 1,000 hectares are planted with 20-year mature vines. N28 Chardonnay is testament of Xige Estate challenging the ultimate expression of the Region’s terroir. This Chardonnay has been fermented and aged in oak barrels for 12 months. It combines both floral and ripe tropical fruits aromas, with a smooth creamy texture, a beautiful refreshing acidity that makes it very pleasant andeasy to drink, ending up with a very long finish.
About the Producer
Xige Estate, founded in 2017, is a top winery which is the most world-leading and largest producer of quality wines at Helan Mountain’s east foothill wine region of Ningxia. It is also an innovative winery that seeks to blaze new trails for Chinese wines. Its founder Zhang Yanzhi, a Bordeaux L'Ecole du Vin trained winemaker, used to sit under Professor Denis Dubourdieu, who has been known as the “Godfather of world wines”, and is the first Chinese member in Académie du vin de Bordeaux. Xige Estate is located in the Dove Mountain vineyards area in Qingtongxia at Helan Mountain’s east foothill of Ningxia. The Helan Mountain’s east foothill is praised as “the future of Chinese wines” by many international professionals, and Qingtongxia is the earliest area that has considerable plantings of vines, as well as a place with profound historical deposits, where the “Dove Mountain Site” from the Paleolithic age 10,000 years ago was preserved. Xige Estate currently has 1,333.33 hectares of vines in this area, including 1,000 hectares over 22 years old and the other 333.33 hectares newly planted since 2017. Built with nearly 200,000 stones from Helan Mountain, the circular-shaped Xige Estate Winery is like a fortress boasting a sleek design and Chinese motifs. The architectural structure with a round outside but square inside implies the quality of modesty and wisdom in Chinese traditional culture while also manifesting its ambition of becoming a world top winery. On its 25,000 km2 land, there are production workshops, oak barrel cellar, filling workshop, bottled aged wine cellar, professional tasting area, visitor center, winery hotel and organic restaurant. The most complete facilities and highest architectural standard in Ningxia enable it to have an annual designed capacity of 10 million bottles.
