Wine of the week: truly groundbreaking wines from China

2017 Chteau Changyu Moser XV, Cabernet Sauvignon Blanc de Noir, Ningxia, China £15.95, Slurp.co.uk; £18.99, selfridges.com

This week I have a wine story that sounds so outlandish and improbable that it simply could not be true. But it is. I met with Lenz Moser last week, one of Austria's most renowned winemakers, in order to taste his brand new Chinese releases. As a precursor to his range he opened a 1996 Lenz Moser cabernet, which he made in his homeland in one of the worst red-wine vintages in living memory. This 23-year-old pale ros-hued wine was lively, impressive, elderflower and blackberry leaf-scented and thoroughly beguiling.

Of course, it should have been a red wine, but the vintage conditions were so poor that the skins gave up no colour and so Lenz had to make a white wine with the merest tinge of cabernet skin.

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Fast forward to today and Lenz poured me the second vintage of his "white cabernet" from Changyu Moser. China is not yet a destination for curious white-wine lovers, but Lenz uses his superb cabernet vines to make white, ros and red wines. This 2017 is a bright, clean, lifted and refreshing white it is unlike any other wine in the world. Serendipity, vision, great taste and determination have carried this man forwards such that he now makes three superb wines under his Chinese brand. Look out for the 2018 ros and 2016 red, which will arrive in the UK later this year (bbr.com) this is truly groundbreaking work!

Matthew Jukes has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006.

He has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.