Sylvia at the Kozlović winery tasting its Malvasia IstrianaSylvia Wu Editor Decanter China, and Regional Editor for Asia, Northern & Eastern Europe
As Decanter’s ‘rest of world’ Regional Editor, this year I had the pleasure of visiting some unusual yet fascinating wine regions and discovering the unexpected. In China, during my first return to Ningxia since 2019, my top discovery was Hongsipu, the cool, southernmost sub-region. Winemaker Li Cai’s Qianhongyu Cabernet Sauvignon 2020, from Huida Sunshine Ecological Winery, features bright fruits with an ethereal freshness rarely found in sun-blazed, continental Ningxia. Sadly, Hongsipu is prone to severe spring frosts, and some of Li’s top plots, used for making this wine, have already been wiped out.
Back in Europe, a short trip to the Istria peninsula in the Adriatic brought me to legendary Croatian producer Kozlović. Here we learned how the nuanced expressions of Malvasia Istriana reflect the subtle differences in vintage conditions and terroir. The Santa Lucia 2015 was one of my favourites – the gentle texture and delicately woven flavours remind me of Grace Wine’s Misawa Vineyard Koshu from its high-altitude Akeno site at the foothills of Mount Fuji in Japan. The same could be said for the Domaine Sigalas, Santorini Assyrtiko 2023 (£33.30 Vinvm), which offers a perfume and mellow texture reminiscent of lemon essential oil.
On the sparkling front, this year’s Hungarian Wine Summit took me to the lakeside region of Balaton, where traditional-method sparkers such as Garamvári’s Optimum Brut 2019 shine. Back home, from the unmissable
