Ao Yun 2018

Ao Yun 2018 is a historic, groundbreaking luxury red blend that marks a massive milestone for Chinese viticulture, representing the first vintage of Ao Yun distributed globally through the prestigious La Place de Bordeaux. Owned by luxury conglomerate LVMH, the estate is located at the foothills of the Himalayas in Yunnan, where vines are split across four distinct mountain villages (Xidang, Sinong, Shuori, and Adong) at staggering high-altitudes ranging from 2,200 to 2,600 meters.

The 2021-bottled 2018 vintage benefited from a cooler, highly balanced growing season. It signals an increased confidence in the estate’s secondary varieties, featuring a higher percentage of Cabernet Franc and Merlot to flesh out the mid-palate. Meticulously crafted using an innovative two-phase aging process—spending its first 5 months in traditional Chinese earthenware pots before transitioning to French oak barrels (30% new) for 10 months—the wine shows a very deep, opaque purple color. The nose is spectacularly lifted and perfumed, bursting with super-ripe cassis, crushed blackberries, and dark plums, beautifully complexed by cool-climate herbaceous notes of mint leaf, sage, incense, and cocoa powder. On the palate, it is full-bodied, dense, and vertical, delivering immense structural authority ($14.5\%$ to $15\%$ ABV) that draws comparisons to top-tier Napa and Mendoza blends. A core of dark savory fruit is supported by a millefeuille-like layering of abundant, fine-grained coating tannins and an exceptionally vibrant line of high-altitude acidity, carrying into a remarkably long, mineral-driven finish.

Food Pairing: Prime dry-aged ribeye steak, roasted leg of lamb with rosemary, slow-braised venison loin, or Peking duck.

98 Points - James Suckling

I love the depth and complexity of the nose, which brings you down deeply into the wine, showing blackberry, ink, tar, earth, incense, cloves, and black licorice. Thyme, too. The purity of the fruit, including cassis, is the real thing. This is full-bodied, but remains so fresh and vertical on the palate. The tannins are so fine and integrated, producing a millefeuille-like layering of tannin and cool, blue fruit. Incredible wine. The greatest wine made in China so far. 60% cabernet sauvignon, 19% cabernet franc, 10% merlot, 7% syrah and 4% petit verdot. 26,000 bottles made. Drinkable now, but will be so much better in four or five years.