Domestic wine with a global passport

The winery of Chateau Changyu Moser XV in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Convincing French people to drink Chinese wine might sound like the punchline of a joke, Moser acknowledges with a smile.

But in the 1960s, California wines were shrugged off as "mouthwash", until a pioneer named Robert Mondavi changed perceptions by developing Opus One and other vintages with some French collaboration.

"For another benchmark, consider that New Zealand wines started at zero 40 years ago," says Moser. "What you see in Ningxia today is really the product of just 10 seriously dedicated years."

"Ningxia is China's No 1 estate wine region," says Li Xueming, director of the Administration of Development of Grape Industry of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, "because we were the first to follow international wine standards".

Li notes that there is a government push to integrate tourism into every level of its wine industry. In an area still dominated by coal, Ningxia's 184 wineries now represent 20 billion yuan in annual revenue from plantings on 610,000 mu (40,666 hectares). China's latest Five-Year Plan calls for growth to 300 wineries generating 50 billion yuan from 1 million mu planted.

In fact, Changyu has already achieved a small international toehold. In the cellar here in Ningxia, there is a barrel signed with the big black scrawl of Jasper Morris of Berry Bros & Rudd, a big buyer in Europe and holder of a royal warrant in Britain's capital. "Berry Bros in London has eight buyers, all masters of wine－the company was the first to take on our chateau in Europe," Moser says happily.

"Changyu is China's oldest biggest and best winemaker, with state-of-the-art equipment," he says of his partnership with the company. "They obviously had great market potential, but lacked international experience in both winemaking and marketing.

"Ninety percent of its business is in China, and that's not going to change fast," Moser observes.

But the winery wants a global reach to enhance its reputation at home, Moser says.

Putting Changyu Moser XV on dining tables in the finest hotels in Europe will open a lot of eyes on both sides of the world.