Six of the winemakers who will join the Ningxia Wine Challenge, which officially starts on September 20, got their first taste of the region when they headed to Kanaan today to try some wines and witness the pressing of the first batch of Riesling from this year’s crop. That initial batch of fruit weighed 800 kilograms and there is much more to come, says winery manager Wang Fang.

The winemakers, who hail from Australia, Chile, New Zealand, Sweden and The United States, also tried four Kanaan wines: a Riesling, a semi-sweet white blend, an entry-level red under the name “Wild Pony“, and a Cabernet-Merlot known as “Pretty Pony“. Wild Pony is the new name for the wines previously bottled as “Gutenland“. Kanaan also has another new label called “Crazy Fang“, the manager’s nickname.

Weighing the grapes outside of Kanaan winery.

The first batch of 2015 Riesling gets sorted.

We tasted four wines, including this inaugural Riesling from 2013.

Group photo!

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