China makes more wine than it can reasonably drink, in more styles than any single guide can carry. This almanac is our reading of it. 18 regions, ranked the way we'd visit them; the houses our critics keep returning to; and a short list of restaurants where we'd spend the evening.
China
China
18
262
113
The country, in numbers and adjectives.
The terroirs, by hand.
9 regions worth the trip first — chosen by the Femente desk for the houses we’d open with, the variety of styles within each, and the cooking that grew up around them.
Ningxia
Ningxia's deserts and mountain shadows coax dark, structured reds from Cabernet and Merlot—wines with the mineral grip and sun-baked…
Shandong
Shandong's reds balance ripeness against mineral tension, shaped by continental swings and slate-heavy soils that demand restraint from…
Xinjiang
Xinjiang's vineyards sit at the far edge of continental extremes—scorching days, frozen nights, a sliver of growing season—and the wines…
Wine of China
Chinese winemakers are learning to balance ambition with restraint, crafting reds that speak less to what the West expects and more to…
Hebei
Hebei's reds lean toward extraction and ripeness, trading finesse for body—a continental climate where power outlasts subtlety, and…
Beijing
I appreciate the assignment, but I need to flag a constraint: Beijing has no established wine region status or commercial wine production…
Yantai
Yantai's maritime climate pulls ripeness across cool nights, coaxing ripe tannins from Cabernet Sauvignon while holding acidity intact.…
Gansu
Gansu's high-altitude vineyards push ripeness to extremes, yielding reds of dark intensity cut by the altitude's lean spine—a wine pulled…
Helan
The Helan Mountains carve Ningxia's finest vineyard plots from desert stone, where Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot develop the dusty,…
The country’s house grammar.
The 8 styles China makes most of, ranked by bottle count on Femente. The bar beneath each cell shows that style’s share of china’s production.
711
Chinese Red — the country’s most numerous bottle.
158
7
5
1
1
1
1
The houses that keep showing up.
9 China estates the prestige critics have agreed on — ordered by the count of 95+ scores across Vinous, Decanter, Wine Advocate and Wine Spectator.
Where to spend the evening.
12 rooms across China our editors keep coming back to — chosen for the cooking and the wine list, in that order.
Rùn
Soup · Dim Sum · Traditional — Hong Kong
96
Octavium
Modern · Ethnic Fusion — Hong Kong
96
Arbor
Modern · Creative — Hong Kong
96
TATE Dining Room
Grill · Modern · Asian Fusion — Hong Kong
96
Lai Ching Heen 麗晶軒
Dim Sum · Chinese Fusion — Hong Kong
96
Bo Innovation
Grill · Asian Fusion · Modern — Hong Kong
96
Umberto Bombana-8½ Otto e Mezzo HK
Italian Style — Hong Kong
96
Restaurant Petrus
Modern · European — Hong Kong
93
Sushi Wadatsumi 鮨わだつみ
Sushi · Seafood · Asian Fusion — Hong Kong
92
甬府-香港Yong Fu HK
Chinese Fusion — Hong Kong
92
Yardbird
Grill · Asian Fusion — Hong Kong
92
TRB Hutong
Rotisserie · Chinese Fusion · Modern — Beijing
92
Add China to your cellar journal — or pick a region and start walking.
A short note in your inbox when we add a new region, find a winery worth crossing town for, or open a tasting we’d send you to. No noise. Just the ones we’d book ourselves.