Kanaan Winery
Kanaan Winery ‘Pretty Pony’ Dry Red 2019
Kanaan Winery ‘Pretty Pony’ Dry Red 2019
Character: Full-bodied
Varietal: Blend
ABV: 15.0%
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Grape Varieties
90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot
Wine and vintage details
All of the grapes are handpicked, destemmed and cold soaked for 3-5 days prior to maceration in stainless steel tanks which are temperature controlled between 8-10 degrees. Alcoholic fermentation lasts about one week at 24 to 29℃. Malolactic fermentation takes place for about two weeks after pressing, the exact timing is dependent on the vintage. The wine is then aged in second use French oak barrels for 14 months
The 2019 vintage saw plenty of sunshine in Ningxia, and less rain than usual, even for an area that typically has a dry climate. While this led to drier soil than seen in previous years, there were also fewer pests and diseases which had a favourable impact on this vintage.
Tasting Notes
This wine is full of ripe, rich fruit flavours alongside a blend of sweet spices. On the nose there are notes of clove, vanilla, and chocolate truffle. As the wine opens up, the flavours expand and develop into elegant notes of fragrant leaves, graphite and soil. Warm and woody notes run throughout the entire tasting
Janet Z. Wang
The Chinese Wine Renaissance: A Wine Lover’s Companion
About Kanaan Winery.
Considered one of China’s top wineries, Kanaan was founded in 2011 by Fang Wang, whose father Wang Feng Yu was a pioneering viticulturist in the Ningxia region, about 1,000 kilometres west of Beijing. Fang is nicknamed ‘Crazy Fang’ due to her ‘crazy’ idea of establishing a winery with no prior experience and embarking on the near-impossible mission of growing Riesling in Ningxia.
Kanaan is located in the foothills of Ningxia’s Helan Mountains and translates to ‘the land of milk and honey’, signifying the hope for Ningxia to be one of China’s leading fine wine regions. The horses on the label reference the Helan Mountains, as ‘helan’ translates to horses in ancient Chinese. Ningxia has harsh winters that require individual vines to be buried manually in November, before being dug up the following April. Temperatures can fall to -20°C, and the annual rainfall is 200mm. Due to Ningxia’s sandy soils, phylloxera can’t survive in the vineyards, allowing the vines to be planted on their own roots.
Kanaan comprises 16.8 hectares of vineyard, planted with 10 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon, 1.3 hectares of Riesling, 1.2 hectares of Merlot and the rest of Chardonnay. The vines are trained in the upturned ‘L’ training system, where the cordon is kept close to the ground to facilitate vine burial. All vineyard work is done by hand as this training system is unsuitable for mechanisation.
Fang spent 12 years abroad, including a significant period in Germany, where she acquired her love of Riesling.