Helan Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon, Château Changyu Moser XV 2023 75cl

This is your way into Chinese wine without the collector's price tag. Helan Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon is the accessible red from Chateau Changyu Moser XV, made from 100% Cabernet grown high on the Ningxia plain below the Helan range.

Ningxia has quietly become China's most exciting wine region, and this estate — a partnership between the historic Changyu winery and Austrian winemaker Lenz Moser — has done much to prove it. The vines sit at around 1,100 metres, where fierce sunshine and cold nights build ripe fruit and firm structure. Moser's hand shows in the restraint: this is Cabernet made with a European sense of definition rather than sheer bombast.

The nose is deep and spicy — ripe blackberry and dark cherry, clove and nutmeg, a lick of vanilla and woodsmoke, and that unmistakable Cabernet cassis. There is even the classic varietal hint of red capsicum. On the palate it is generous and pungently fruity, meaty and mouth-watering, with a soft texture set over a dry, savoury backbone. Well made and genuinely characterful.

At £23.99 this is a smart, slightly off-piste choice — a proper Cabernet from a region most people have not yet tried, and a great talking point at dinner. Drink over the next four to five years. Well worth the curiosity.

How to Serve

Serve at 16–18°C in a Bordeaux glass. Half an hour in a decanter helps it show its best.

Where to Drink It

Boisdale for a hearty meat-led dinner. The Wolseley. Brat in Shoreditch for the grill.

Food Pairings

A char-grilled steak plays straight to the Cabernet structure. Lamb kofte with cumin and spice is a livelier alternative.