Chinese wine has undergone a remarkable transformation in a short period of time. Five years since releasing our first Top 100 Wines of China 100 report – and after tasting another 500 bottles this year – the progress has been unmistakable. A decade ago, China’s reputation for fine wine was tentative at best; now its leading producers are releasing bottles that stand comfortably alongside established global benchmarks. That shift was clear at several events in Hong Kong this year, from the Hong Kong Wine & Dine Festival to a comparative tasting at James Suckling Wine Central, where Chinese wines held their own against international icons.

In a year full of remarkable Chinese wines, a couple of high-elevation chardonnays from Yunnan – the Mingyi Yunnan Above the Creek 酩一桃溪之上干白葡萄酒 2022 and Clos Mao Shangri-La Light 茂园理光干白 2023 – really took it to the extremes of high quality coming out of the mainland. However, with production limited to around 1,000 bottles each, they weren’t serious contenders for our Chinese Wine of the Year. Don’t forget – our Top 100 lists weigh not just quality and character, as measured by their scores, but also value and availability. This year, we also capped selections to a maximum of two wines per winery so we could better spotlight new producers and wines.

Although our Chinese Wine of the Year, the Xige Estate Cabernet Gernischt Ningxia Jade Dove Single Vineyard 西鸽酒庄玉鸽单一园蛇龙珠2021, doesn’t boast a cult following like the two Yunnan chardonnays, it does disprove the notion that Chinese wines are mostly overpriced, unavailable and lack character and originality. With around 90,000 bottles made and a retail price of about US$66, it's both easy to find and affordable.

As a large, modern producer in Ningxia focusing both on quality and quantity, Xige is also known as a specialist in cabernet gernischt – a grape now widely regarded as distinctly Chinese despite its complex heritage.

While the name “cabernet gernischt” (literally “mixed cabernet”) may suggest a tie to cabernets, the grape is actually genetically more similar to carmenere, which is most popular in Chile. But Chinese cabernet gernischt differs from its Chilean counterpart in distinct ways, perhaps due to the impact that the leafroll virus has had on cabernet gernischt in China.

Although this viral infection, which is quite common in regions like Ningxia, affects vine health and wine quality, it also renders a uniquely peppery, dried-herb quality to the wines and leaves them with a lighter color and body as well as lower alcohol content – something that is often preferred by consumers these days.

Our Chinese Wine of the Year boasts more of a pure and cedary character, with a complex nose of spices, red fruit and tobacco. It is a medium-bodied wine, with sleek tannins, round acidity, a silky texture and excellent poise and drinkability. Nuances of ripened pyrazine spiciness with a restrained peppery note make it an attractive red rich in character. It’s 13.8 percent alcohol level is much less than the 15.5 percent that is typical in Ningxia wines.

We also have two syrahs among our Top 10 Chinese wines. The No. 2 Chapter and Verse Syrah Huailai Mastery 诗百篇特选西拉 2022 comes from one of China’s top producers, Canaan Winery, and from one of the best vintages ever in Huailai County. Chief winemaker Zhao Desheng described 2022 as a “blessed year” that benefited from warm, dry weather in August and September.

The result is a more eclectic expression of syrah that merges intensity, depth and opulence with a bit of freshness, agility and tension. Notably, a small percentage of whole clusters were included during fermentation, adding complexity and texture to the final wine. It is their best “mastery”-level wine (positioned between their “select” and “reserve” categories) and it’s a bottle that can be had for under $60.

At No. 6, the Farmentation Syrah Shangri-la Medo 梅朵西拉干红 2021 is an intriguing offering from one of the most exciting winemaking projects found in the complex, high-altitude mountain ranges of Yunnan. It comes from a vineyard nestled at 2,450 meters in the village of Luwa in Deqin County. The minimalist approach of Luo Yuchen, Farmentation’s founder and winemaker, yields a fruit-forward, juicy wine that honors grapes and their origin.

The name “Medo” pays homage to the grower who first planted vines in Luwa, Medo, a Tibetan woman who goes by one name and is in now in her 80s, according to Luo. Medo first grafted the syrah onto 18-year-old cabernet sauvignon vines in 2019, making Luwa one of the first villages in Yunnan to grow syrah. Luo still sources his grapes from her.

To capture the true essence of the terroir, Luo has been keeping winemaking as simple and neutral as possible. Fermentation occurs in stainless-steel tanks using a Champagne yeast strain (EC1118), followed by approximately 18 months of aging in neutral, old French barrels that are over five years old.

In 2021, 8,000 bottles were made, and with a retail price of under $40, this pristine, expressive and intrinsically concentrated syrah stands out as one of the year’s exceptional values from China.

Another of the four wines from Yunnan in the Top 10 is the No. 4 Ao Yun Shangri-La 敖云云南香格里拉 2021 – a wine that showcases the power and finesse that comes from a warm, dry year. This vintage is slightly more concentrated and structured than the precise, spot-on 2020, but continues its legacy as one of China’s premier cabernet sauvignons, in this case blending in 12 percent merlot, 6 percent syrah and 6 percent petit verdot.

In stark contrast to the Ao Yun, the more succulent Xiao Ling Shangri-La 霄岭 2022 sits at No. 5 – a rather ethereal cabernet sauvignon-merlot blend from the rainier southern part of Shangri-la, highlighting purity, brightness and succulence over sheer power and concentration. The 2022 vintage is a captivating continuation of this distinctive, almost pinot or Bojo-like style. At its core, it is the terroir that defines this wine, complemented by a Burgundian influence from the team that helps transmit its sense of place.

Call them “unicorn” wines, but the fascinating chardonnays emerging from projects like Mingyi and Clos Mao in Jiangpo village are now among the most sought-after bottles in China. For winemakers flying into Yunnan from other regions, the high-elevation chardonnay from Deqin – especially fruit sourced from villages like Jiangpo at nearly 2,900 meters – has become the country’s most coveted. These wines are marked by purity, electric acidity and crystalline precision. As Clos Mao founder Mao Xiao, who made the strikingly pure Clos Mao Shangri-La Light 茂园理光干白 2023, noted, “the question is how we work with this kind of acidity.”

At No. 3, the Mingyi Yunnan Above the Creek 酩一桃溪之上干白葡萄酒 2022 is arguably the most breathtaking Chinese wine we tasted this year – re-creating the “wow” factor last delivered by our 2023 Chinese Wine of the Year, the Xiao Ling Chardonnay Shangri-La Hong Po 霄岭红坡霞多丽 2021. Both wines were crafted by the same winemaker, Feng Jian.

While reminiscent of top-level Burgundy, the Mingyi offers an even more intense flavor profile, carrying a touch of sweetness from Yunnan’s intense sunlight that integrates seamlessly with its purity of fruit, crystalline acidity and mineral salinity. Production is tiny – around 1,000 bottles – and the wine’s $200 price didn't stop it from selling out almost instantly.

Two more whites and one traditional-method sparkling wine made our Top 10. At No. 8, the Puchang Vineyard Rkatsiteli Xinjiang Turpan 蒲昌酒庄白羽 2023 continues its streak of excellence. Sourced from the sun-drenched, arid Turpan Valley – where extreme diurnal shifts and irrigation from Tianshan snowmelt via the ancient karez canal system are essential – this rkatsiteli once again shows the grape’s remarkable adaptability. The 2023 vintage delivers mineral nuance and clean, lightly neutral fruit flavors of sliced apple, stone fruit and macadamia.

The other white, the No. 9 Domaine Charme Viognier Ningxia 夏木庄园维欧妮干白葡萄酒 2023, demonstrates that Ningxia’s future is not defined solely by red wine. As more wineries plant viognier, Domaine Charme remains the reference point, producing a wine that merges aromatics of white peach, blossoms and gingery spice with a lightly waxy texture and refreshing acidity. We still remember the eye-opening 2019 vintage five years ago, which first introduced us to winemaker Deng Zhongxiang – who now consults for eight Ningxia projects in addition to leading his own brand, Beyond Time.

The non-dosage Devo Ningxia Traditional Method Blanc de Blancs 悦慕传统酿造法白中白 2022 (No. 7) is a revelation from a region not commonly associated with traditional-method sparkling wines. Produced from 100 percent chardonnay grown in one of the highest sites in Jinshan at the eastern foothills of the Helan Mountains, the wine shows an almost chalky, briny character, intense yeasty autolysis, refined bubbles and better acidity than previous releases. Aged for 30 months on lees and disgorged in September, it offers exceptional quality for around $60 – outperforming many non-vintage Champagnes.

For the first time, a Ningxia marselan breaks into the Top 10 with the Dong Fang Yu Xing Marselan Ningxia Ge Rui Hong 东方裕兴酒庄戈蕊红马瑟兰干红 2024 (No. 10). The 2024 vintage was one of the most difficult in memory: relentless rain from late August through harvest caught the region unprepared, leading many wineries to lose nearly all their red grapes. Winemaker Wu Xiuyong called it the hardest harvest in his 41 years of experience. Fortunately, the higher-elevation Hong Si Pu subregion was less affected, allowing this distinctive marselan to shine. Despite tighter fruit selection and the permissible addition of up to 20 percent wine from previous vintages, the result is fresher and more lifted than the typical Ningxia style, with higher acidity, crunchy blue fruit and lower alcohol.

“Regardless of the vintage, we always want to make affordable and drinkable marselan. That’s the idea,” Wu emphasized. Instead of leaning into the heavy, super-charged, oak-driven style often associated with Ningxia reds, Wu sees marselan as a gentle gateway for new wine drinkers. With over 3,000 bottles produced and a price just above $25, this youthful, 1,400-meter-altitude marselan delivers brambly fruit and a rare peppery note. It challenges conventional expectations of China’s now-signature red grape, offering a refreshing alternative to the brooding, high-alcohol marselans that dominate the region.

While Shandong missed a spot in the Top 10 this year – despite placing nine wines across the full list – its absence is largely due to difficult recent vintages since 2022 and rising grape prices affecting overall value. Meanwhile, categories such as orange wines, dessert wines and multi-regional bottlings from independent winemakers continue to gain momentum. Innovative producers like Farmentation, Silver Heights, Petit Mont, Xiao Pu and Lingering Clouds are helping establish China as one of the most creative and dynamic wine landscapes in the world. As many young winemakers told us this year, it’s all about discovery – and we hope buyers and consumers embrace that same spirit as they explore the Top 100 Wines of China 2025.

– Zekun Shuai, Senior Editor

The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated over the last 12 months by the JamesSuckling.com tasting team. You can sort the wines below by vintage, score and alphabetically by winery name. You can also search for specific wines in the search bar.