Wine down the track

Shao Qingsong, a winemaker at Lilan Winery, says Ningxia is an ideal location for grape growing. "We don't have much rain in Ningxia, and if we need water, we can transfer it from the Yellow River," says Shao.

Lilan Winery is located in Yuanlong village in Minning town, 30 kilometers southwest of Yinchuan, in the heart of the Helan Mountains' East Foothill Wine Region.

The water from the Yellow River is rich in organic matter that benefits the grapes, and the soil releases an energy at night that helps the fruit mature.

"We make our own organic fertilizer to use on our grapes instead of using chemical ones, which helps to lower costs while increasing the quality," says Shao.

Unlike other wine regions, the grapevines in Ningxia have to be buried in the soil in winter and dug up again the following spring to prevent them from dying in the extreme and arid conditions. Shao and his teammates are working on creating ways to tackle this problem moving forward.

"From our 107-hectare area for grape growing, we can produce about 500 tons of grapes, which can be made into about 400,000 bottles of wine," says Shao. "We are now selling our wines to France and England."