About The China Vine
An English-language publication on Chinese wine, vineyards and journeys. Field notes by Tianqi. Published by Journey X (简兮旅行).
What this publication is
Section titled “What this publication is”Chinese wine is often introduced as a novelty. We write about it as a wine culture.
The China Vine exists because Chinese wine has outgrown the easy adjectives. It is no longer enough to call it emerging, surprising, or the next big thing. The regions are uneven, ambitious, fragmented, and often difficult to read from outside China. That is precisely why they deserve serious English-language writing.
The international wine press still covers Chinese wine on the margins. Chinese-language coverage is often local, promotional, or difficult for outside readers to access. The China Vine sits in the middle: field-based, English-language writing for readers who want to understand the regions rather than collect headlines.
We build it one chapter at a time, one region at a time.
What you will find here
Section titled “What you will find here”- Regions. Eight Chinese wine regions, each opened with a terroir-first chapter.
- Winery Stories. Long-form profiles of the people and estates that matter, from Silver Heights to Ao Yun, Helan Qingxue to Xiaoling.
- Wine Routes. Five canonical routes, each verified on the ground. From the Ningxia weekend to the 2,600 m Yunnan plateau to the −20°C Northeast ice harvest.
- Travel Notes. Essays, vintage updates, wines to try lists, and the long-arc context: history, varieties, the modern industry.
The structure follows the underlying book — Chinese Wine Regions, currently in long-form draft — but each piece reads as a standalone publication article.
Who writes this
Section titled “Who writes this”The China Vine is written by Tianqi, a wine professional and travel-industry veteran based between Shanghai and southern France. He holds the WSET Diploma, the Weinakademiker title from the Austrian Wine Academy, and a Wine MBA from the Burgundy School of Business in Dijon.
He has spent nearly twenty years designing and operating cultural journeys, and the last six years working at the intersection of wine, education, and travel. Most regions covered here have been visited on the ground, often more than once.
Who publishes this
Section titled “Who publishes this”The China Vine is published by Journey X (简兮旅行), a Shanghai-based travel company specialising in high-end and corporate travel since 2020. Journey X also operates Vin Voyager SARL in France, its European wine-region DMC.
This means three things:
- The chapters are funded by a working business, not by sponsorship from any estate or producer covered here. We do not accept paid placement.
- The routes are operable. Every itinerary on this site can be booked through Journey X. If you want to travel what you have just read, the path from page to vineyard is one click: Plan a China Wine Journey.
- The China Vine is a publication, not a marketing site. Editorial decisions are made independently of the travel business. We name what is good, what is overrated, what is interesting. The business benefits from the credibility; it does not direct the writing.
How to reach us
Section titled “How to reach us”- Contact the author directly: /contact/
- Plan a wine journey through Chinese wine regions: /plan-a-china-wine-journey/
- European wine travel (Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Tuscany, Rioja): Vin Voyager
- Corporate or incentive travel beyond wine: Journey X
Editorial principles
Section titled “Editorial principles”- Facts before flair. Every named year, score, hectare and bottle price is sourced or has been verified on the ground.
- No anonymous quotes from undisclosed estates. When we quote a winemaker, we quote the winemaker.
- No marketing language. We do not write “hidden gem”, “world-class”, “a journey of the senses”, or “soul of the land”. If a wine is good, we say why.
- Long-form by default. The Chinese wine story is complicated. We do not summarise it into bullets when paragraphs are what is needed.
- Slow publishing. This site is not a content treadmill.
The China Vine is the long version of a working belief: that Chinese wine deserves to be written about with the seriousness Jancis Robinson gives Bordeaux, the attention Andrew Jefford gives terroir, and the practical eye Hugh Johnson gives the actual bottle. We aim somewhere between those three.
The work will continue for as long as the regions are still being made.