Wine down the track

Shao believes Ningxia is capable of producing highlevel wines, but it needs time to improve. "If you plant grape seeds this year, you will only get grapes that are good enough to make quality wine five years later. Our winery has only been producing wines for three years, so there is still some way to go."

Set up in 1997, Chateau Hedong does not suffer from the same problem. Their vineyards have more established vines, some of which date back more than a century.

After taking over the winery in 2010, owner Gong Jie studied business administration at Tsinghua University to learn more about how to manage his vineyards.

"I used to be in the mining business, so I had to learn about making wines from scratch," says Gong. "But life has been getting steadily better since I started to work with the local farmers to develop the soil, from the first shoots of spring to the harvest in autumn.

"The government is also supporting us by rewarding winemakers with 500,000 yuan ($72,600) for every award they win at the most-influential wine competitions. So far, we have won three."