Did the romance of the Shangri-La myth and the Himalayas play a role in the choice?
It started more with the ideal climate, but the purity and natural beauty of the place we also loved. The main role of the Himalayas is to block the sun, which only hits the vineyards at 9:30am so we get 30% fewer sunshine hours per day. This gives a really long, cool growing season––about 20-25 days longer than in Bordeaux––which lets us push the harvest later without any oxidation to get a unique tannin texture.
That’s pretty incredible. The typical challenge with producing fine wine in China has not been a lack of investment, quality sites or winemaking talent but a dearth of experienced vineyard workers; what has it been like for you working with local farmers?