Ao Yun
Price: RMB 2,130 (USD 330)
Region: Yunnan
The luxury group LVMH first launched their high-altitude Chinese wine, Ao Yun, in 2013, one of the 23 brands it owns beside Moët & Chandon, Krug and Veuve Clicquot. The first Ao Yun vintage is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc, produced in the foothills of the Himalayas near Shangri-La.
The name Ao Yun means “floating cloud” in Chinese, suggesting its high vineyard site. Located in northern Yunnan province bordering Laos and Myanmar, the vineyard has an altitude over 2,000 meters above sea level.
This means besides its extreme climatic conditions, the costs of producing wine is also high. With little electricity, water and gas, the wine cannot be made with modern machinery and needs to be produced by local authentic farming techniques. The harvest and winemaking were done entirely by hand, thus the manpower cost is highest among all the LVMH wine brands, said Jean-Guillaume Prats, the former head of LVMH Wine, in an interview.
As the first Chinese wine traded on Liv-ex in 2016, the wine received vast attention for its debut and set a record being sold at around GBP 225 (USD 306) a bottle.
