NEWS
LAFITE’S CHINA WINE “LONG DAI” WILL BE DEBUTED ON 19 SEPTEMBER
By David Ma
4-7-2019
DBR Lafite has made known the name of its Chinese wine, called Domaine de Long Dai (瓏岱), the inaugural 2017 vintage will be released in China on 19 September this year.
According to CEO of DBR Lafite, Jean-Guillaume Prats, some 2,500 cases of the inaugural vintage are ready to be debuted.
The wine will be distributed in China exclusively by Pernod Ricard China, which is one of DBR Lafite’s four distributors in China. They will also likely be available in early 2020 in markets outside of China.
The inaugural bottles of Long Dai are a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Marselan and Cabernet Franc from vines planted in 2011 on granite slopes in the Qiu Shan Valley in the northeastern Shandong province.
Apart from Cabernet Sauvignon, Marselan and Cabernet Franc, the vineyards are also planted with Syrah, Merlot and Alicante Bouschet.
The wine being released this autumn has been aged for 18 months in French oak barriques from the Tonnellierie des Domaines cooperage in Pauillac.
Prats highlighted that customers will have to wait “until the end of November to receive their precious bottles as the wine will have to rest once in the bottle a little longer to be perfectly ready.”
The company is still to announce the price of Long Dai’s inaugural vintage.
DBR Lafite’s China project was initially a joint venture with China CITIC Group until CITIC transferred their stake to Lafite last year “to focus on their core business”.
This project has attracted many speculative talks since its inception in 2008.
First there were talks over a stalled early project, then over why they picked Shandong over the viticulturally more famous Ningxia region where the Chinese government has been encouraging wine companies with 50-year leases and the availability of grants.
The biggest question of all is why it was taking them so long to release their inaugural vintage. Fortunately, wine lovers will soon be able to taste Lafite’s China wine after eleven long years of waiting.
(the writer can be contacted at: DavidMa@thewinechronicle.com)
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