Edward Ragg MW on Chinese Wine’s Evolution and Life After Wine Advocate

After four years as the China-based reviewer for The Robert Parker Wine Advocate, Edward Ragg MW reflects on the evolution of Chinese wine, from emerging stylistic trends to the increasing importance of terroir. In this exclusive interview, Ragg also shares his thoughts on what’s next for the country’s wine industry and outlines his future plans following Wine Advocate’s decision to pause Chinese coverage.

The American wine publication earlier made a shocking decision to suspend its Chinese review, four years after appointing Edward Ragg MW as its China-based reviewer.

In an official statement, the publication said: “The Robert Parker Wine Advocate is very grateful to Edward Ragg MW for his reviewing and reports over the last four years. At present we are pausing our coverage of Chinese wines as we reconsider our approach to China’s budding wine industry.”

The decision came after the American wine publication itself went through a major change when London-based William Kelley was appointed its Editor in Chief earlier this year.

Ragg was named the China reviewer for the publication in late 2019 just shortly after he achieved the much-coveted Master of Wine Title. At the time, the decision was seen as a tacit nod to China’s growing prowess as a wine producer. 

With Ragg, the Wine Advocate published several annual reports on China’s fine wines, reviewing about 100-200 different wines each year for the publication. However, the ensuing pandemic coupled with China’s strict lockdowns disrupted the publication’s event planning and its subscriber growth in China was not on par with other parts of the world .

Even though China’s wine consumption has contracted notably in recent years, it still ranks as the world’s third largest country under vine and 9^th biggest wine consumer, according to OIV.

This year, China is also poised to join OIV as a formal member in November, giving the country greater influence in formulating international standards and regulations on wine production and consumption.

As a full member, China, a leading wine producer and consumer, will benefit from the expertise, cooperation, and services of a network of more than 500 experts and 50 existing member states.

As Wine Advocate’s coverage comes to a close, Edward Ragg MW is already looking ahead to the next chapter. In our interview, he delves into the stylistic evolution of Chinese wine, discusses the challenges and opportunities for the industry, and shares his future plans as he transitions from his role at Wine Advocate.

Q: In your experience rating and reviewing Chinese wines over the past few years, what key stylistic trends and evolution have you observed in the industry?

Edward Ragg MW: I wouldn’t say there have been massive changes stylistically, as the majority of Chinese wines are dry reds with or without new oak influence. But within that category, it’s clear there’s been greater experimentation with grape varieties and a greater understanding of how to create strong varietal red blends; as well as more careful use of new oak. That said, there have been some new styles of wine, which I’ll come on to.

Admittedly, some of China’s very top wines are predominantly or even 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, which remains the most important black variety and most planted variety overall. Just consider Dan Sheng Di’s village wines (Sulu and Bucun) or the top Cabernets of Ningxia.

But in other projects, red blends also expressive of place have become very important: Ao Yun began as a Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc blend but has shifted in varieties by vintage since and has a stronger regional identity now as well as its single village wines. Long Dai incorporates more Marselan, Syrah and Petit Verdot than hitherto; and, across its vintages, is revealing its terroir, despite, or maybe because of, vintage variation. And there are numerous other examples of strong red blends from Hebei, Shandong, Xinjiang and elsewhere that are increasingly expressive of place.

But, when it comes to varieties, there’s arguably even greater excitement in the likes of Malbec and Viognier, say, in Ningxia, albeit in tiny quantities. There are also other ‘alternative varieties’ for China, be those Merlot, Tempranillo, Aglianico, Sangiovese and others. So, you have this interesting competition between wines of style (including variety) and wines of place which, in some cases, work hand in hand to express origin. That’s very exciting!

Having said that, there’s also a small number of natural wines produced – from various varieties – and orange wines, not all of which are natural in that they are skin-contacted but use sulphur dioxide to ward off oxygen and enhance stability (Ian Dai’s wines, Puchang, Yuandian). The more ‘natural’ you go, in my view, the less expressive of place or variety you can be if your wines start to exhibit faults and instability.

But the example of Ian Dai also shows the rise in small-batch, quasi-garagiste wines in various styles, as with Domaine Muxin in Yunnan. Some wineries – e.g. Chateau Nine Peaks – now also produce a range of pink wines and there’s traditional method sparkling, but these remain small parts of the market.

So there has been a stylistic evolution. I wouldn’t necessarily say these have lead to new trends exactly because in some cases there are only a handful of wineries creating these more adventurous styles. Maybe they are small trends.

But I’m particularly interested in how Chinese wines are far more expressive of place now than before and grape varieties can be a lens for that: Helan Shan Cabernet tastes different from Shangri-La Cabernet which in turn is distinguishable from the Cabernet blends of Shandong.

And Helan Shan, of course, has also been exploring its sub-regions. So, some shifting of style and a greater emphasis on place, as Chinese wineries pay much more attention to viticulture, are among the big changes I’ve seen.

Q: In your view, what key steps or developments are still needed for Chinese wines to gain greater recognition and popularity among international consumers? What challenges remain in achieving this?

ER: I think, for many Chinese wineries, achieving international recognition is obviously attractive, especially if you consider how the Decanter award for Helan Qingxue several years ago really encouraged focus not only on what China could produce but also Helan Shan in particular. To win medals in major international competitions and achieve higher scores from influential wine reviewing publications is also obviously important for wineries.

But, for many wineries, they are trying to meet the challenge of acceptance, firstly, at home: of attracting Chinese nationals to appreciate their wines and win over those wine lovers in China who usually drink imported wine and have doubts about Chinese wines’ quality or, more usually, value for money. Overpricing has been a real issue and there is a risk not only that this will alienate consumers within mainland China, but will also not impress international wine lovers perhaps coming to Chinese wine for the first time.

It’s also important to understand that Chinese wines are not widely distributed internationally apart from the likes of wineries like Xige and Silver Heights. Ao Yun is the only Chinese wine listed on Liv-Ex. There’s also been some interesting placement of Chinese wines on airlines, e.g. Cathay Pacific. But many international consumers are not aware China produces wine or, if they are, do not have convenient, or indeed any, opportunities to taste anything Chinese.

So the challenges involve not wide enough distribution internationally as well as the big stumbling block, in my view, being sometimes poor quality-price ratio. We know there are extra costs associated with vine burial in some regions, but this doesn’t account for the unrealistic margins wineries and retailers expect.

I think communication is also an issue. My reviewing work for Wine Advocate purely focused on quality, although I would occasionally point out wines that are better value for money; and the detailed reviews were available only to subscribers and not often reproduced unless it was by international merchants listing vintages of Ao Yun. So, internationally, the wines weren’t getting huge attention.

But what is communicated can also problematic. Some publications have published a ‘Top 100 Wines of China’ but have conflated quality and quality-price ratio; so, you end up with some weird results when they should really have a separate Top 100 Value wines v. a Top 100, for example, for which there would be overlap, but where the differences were much clearer. To an international audience, therefore, some of the reviewing looks confusing because absolute quality benchmarked against international examples has not been clearly communicated by some reviewing platforms.

Q: Are there any standout or lesser-known wine regions and producers in China that you believe consumers should be paying closer attention to? What makes them unique?

ER: I wouldn’t say there are lesser-known regions, although Liaoning has been producing compelling Icewine in tiny quantities for some time. And there is not, arguably, a stand-out region either. To my mind, some of the best Cabernet-blends have been produced in Yunnan’s Shangri-La but my reviews and scores always focused on the very best wines I could find regardless of region; and it was not the case that Yunnan was alone in the highest scoring wines.

I think it’s also important to understand the different scales of production: Yunnan, because of its topography, is never going to produce larger quantities of fine wine or any wine. It’s better to think of those operations as akin to Burgundy domaines – whether that’s XiaoLing, Domaine Muxin or Ao Yun say, albeit at different sizes. That’s a very different picture from Ningxia’s Helan Shan where there is a move to expand production and the space to do so. Some of those operations are more akin to Bordeaux chateaux or larger estates we see elsewhere in the world. So I think it’s more important to understand regional differentiation v. production.

With producers, I think it’s pretty well-established, at least within China, as to who the major wineries are for quality, at least those that have a track record. But new projects can develop especially quickly, whether with the likes of Dan Sheng Di or Stone & Moon; and we do see even smaller batch winemaking appearing from the kinds of producers mentioned above. That’s exciting in terms of unique wines, albeit in relatively small quantities.

Q: What’s next for you after your time at Wine Advocate? Do you have any plans to venture into independent wine reviewing, or perhaps explore other aspects of the wine industry?

ER: I’ve just returned from Ningxia where I spent time with Nicolas Billot-Grima, who co-founded Stone & Moon but also set up Huadong in Shandong in the early 1980s with Michael Parry and was responsible for importing Marselan into China (when at Domaine Franco-Chinois). So we talked extensively about the nature of the Chinese industry now and what needs to be addressed, especially considering the opportunities that may arise with China joining the OIV.

I am free now to consult with wineries, not only having had extensive reviewing experience of Chinese wines but also having judged at numerous international and Australian wine shows – I’ll be judging at the Wine Show of Western Australia in October – and I’d like to bring this judging experience across cultures to the assistance of Chinese wineries, depending on their needs.

I am also in discussion with Xing Wei MW and will be talking with Gus Zhu MW – both Dragon Phoenix Masters of Wine! – and others to consider further ways of reviewing Chinese wines or working with Chinese wineries to improve quality and communication. China may benefit from both homegrown coverage of its wines together with the assistance of palates who understand quality across international markets, some of whom are indeed Chinese! There’s a lot of expertise in the industry that is untapped, in my view; although we do see collaboration, as for example with the Wynn’s Signature Chinese wine competition.

I will continue this year to run the IMW’s Australasian programme as co-coordinator of the Adelaide seminar and serve as a member of the IMW’s Education Committee. I’ve really enjoyed running this programme for Stage 1 and Stage 2 MW students from all over the world, including several students from mainland China. And I will continue to develop my Mandarin Chinese to deliver masterclasses across China as well as run Dragon Phoenix as a specialist wine training and consulting company with our focus being on our WSET programme – especially for Diploma – along with many non-certification courses. I’m also hoping to work with the British Council in China to undertake further poetry and wine activities, given my background in both literature and wine; and will have a sixth collection of poetry published hopefully in 2026.