£10.99, Wine Rack
I’ve chosen a new-wave red wine from China to mark Chinese New Year on Saturday. The alternative would have been a zingy, off-dry Riesling from Europe, the southern hemisphere or North America to match a variety of seafood, vegetable, dim sum, rice and noodle dishes, but I wanted to highlight the quality and style emerging from this vast new world of wine where Cabernet Sauvignon is king. This one, from vineyards planted around a dozen years ago in the fast-growing Ningxia province, is made by Chateau Changyu Moser XV. The company dates back to the late nineteenth century, but its new incarnation, with the Moser XV appendage, is a product of its twenty-first century collaboration with Austrian honorary winemaker Lenz Moser. As for the wine, it’s a textbook, contemporary Cabernet with ripe, rounded blackcurrant fruit, smoky sweet herb and clove flavours and a soft, velvety texture – soft enough and spicy enough to take on more powerful Chinese food, or western dishes. If you want something slightly more traditional, Sainsbury’s has Changyu Noble Dragon 2013, a red made largely from Cabernet Gernischt, a grape variety the rest of the world, especially Chile, calls Carmenère (currently on offer at £8).
Moser XV Cabernet Sauvignon 2015, Ningxia, China
£10.99, Wine Rack stores and winerack.co.uk