Flying winemakers step aside – Deng Zhongxiang is revealing Ningxia's complex terroir one kilometer at a time.

The air hangs heavy with mist over China's Ningxia wine region.

The title "flying winemaker" inspires images of exciting journeys to exotic locales to save the vinous day, with boozy airport lounge breaks on the way back home.

But "driving winemaker"? Not so much.

The life of Deng Zhongxiang, a wine consultant who averages 200 kilometers per day on the lonely roads of China's remote Ningxia region, epitomizes this.

Deng graduated in oenology at University of Burgundy, interned atChateau LascombesandDomaine des Lambrays, and worked atDomaine Vincent Girardin.

Then he moved toNingxiain 2012 and has sped across the wind-swept roads of this north-central region ofChinaever since. His is a daily grind of pounding the pavement–blazing hot in summer, bitter cold in winter–for a rising list of clients that now totals seven.

But if Deng's roads are often lonely, his work life is full, with a vast range of terroirs, grape varieties and owners to handle. The result of this work, including a mountain of contest medals, make him arguably China's most intriguing wine consultant, even if a relatively unknown one.

Group of seven

Deng's clients range from a veteran grape -armer-turned-wine-producer (Chateau Rongyuanmei) to an architect with whose winery includes a pyramid to house the cellar (Domaine Charme), and from a family from a nearby province who are passionate about both wine and Chinese architecture (Lansai Winey) to a foreign investor based in the country's south (United Winery).

Even before Deng gets to the grapes, his job requires serious people skills to juggle all of these different owners' dreams and demands.

"He is one of the most energetic and open-minded winemakers but remains very down to earth as a consultant," says Shuai Zekun, who rates Chinese wines for James Suckling. "And now he serves seven wineries in Ningxia. It's crazy!"

(Along with the four mentioned above, Deng also consults for Mountain Wave, Heyu and Holyfun.)

In field and winery, Deng handles grapes fromViognier,ChardonnayandVidaltoMarselan,MalbecandMerlottoCabernet Sauvignon,Pinot NoirandSyrah, planted in vineyards that range in age from two decades to just a few years.

And while Ningxia wineries share similarities, including dry cold winters that require vine burial, each has quirks in terms of terrain, soil and climate.

Charme, for example, has football-sized boulders strewn through its vineyards near the imposing Helan Mountain range, while Rongyuanmei, far further from that shelter, is flat and exposed, with finer sandy soils.

That allows Deng to reveal his Burgundian side with place-specific wines.

"Domaine Charme's Marselan is often broodingly concentrated but structured due to the rocky soils in Jinshan [sub-region]," explains Shuai. "This is different from, let's say, Lansai's Marselan, which is a lot more expressive and silkier. The same can be said for the Cabernets. Deng highlights the characteristics of the terroirs in different appellations."

Some of the wines Deng Zhongxiang helps look afte

Winemaker and more

But Deng's role goes beyond making wine that express terroir. He also serves as confidant and reality check.

"When I first started my winery, the first person I told my dream to was Zhongxiang," says owner Zhang Pei, the pyramid-building architect. "He witnessed the realization of that dream over the past ten years."

Charme gained attention partly due to its Viogniers – fragrant and lively and capturing the grape's typicity–which Deng tests in tanks, oak barrels and acacia barrels.

And while those Viogniers might seem breakthrough enough for a newish winery, Charme surprised everyone last year by launching an 'orange' version, with 40 days of skin contact and aging in 500-liter used barrels. That wine earned widespread praise, with Shuai ranking it in his top ten Chinese wines of 2022 and putting it on par with the best he'd tasted from around the world.

In short, owner Zhang says Deng brings "rational solutions" to the lofty goals of making Charme globally famous. "He's the collaborator who gave me the most confidence and friendship."

Pushing boundaries

This pursuit at Charme both of wines of typicity and of a more adventurous nature is seen elsewhere.

At Mountain Wave, one of Deng's newer clients, his first project was blending three grapes rarely planted together: Pinot Noir, Marselan and Malbec.

The resulting 'PMM' turned out well and this year Deng is also making pet-nats for each of those three grapes.

"We always had some idea of doing sparkling wines," says owner Melvin Li. "Deng was deeply involved and gave really good suggestions about the quality and design of our tanks while building our winery."

Deng also gets results with critics, including for his work at another long-term client, Lansai, where he has consulted since 2016.

Calling him "Teacher Zhongxiang", owner Yu Xiaojia praises Deng as "organized, disciplined, rigorous and serious."

Lansai's Marselan, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay have all received kudos, with the Cabernet Sauvignon earning 96 points at this year's Decanter World Wine Awards and a gold medal at 2022's Berliner Wine Trophy.

This success reflects the growth of the relationship.

"Over the years, we have trusted each other, supported each other, learned from each other, understood each other," says Yu.

Deng Zhongxiang next to a winery's amphorae.

Rising reputation

These achievements have steadily raised Deng's profile, although he isn't nearly as visible as some winemakers and consultants, who regularly lead forums, master classes and dinners across the country and sometimes overseas.

In April, Deng led a dinner, featuring Marselan from five of his clients, at The Merchants wine bar and restaurant in Beijing. While the wines were a revelation for guests, the bigger surprise was that this was the first such event for him.

(The uniqueness of the five wines also led The Merchants' Isabella Ko to call him the "Michel Rolland of China.")

But Deng's profile is now getting a major boost as he helps one of China's top wine KOLs, Wang Shenghan aka Lady Penguin, make her first wine. Wang has been sharing her vineyard and winery adventures, and thus promoting Deng, Ningxia and Chinese wine, with millions of followers on platforms such as WeChat, Douyin (TikTok) and Xiao Hong Shu (Little Red Book).

Even so, these visits to Ningxia by Wang, and the growing number of critics, trade people and fans he meets, are short. With winter coming, Deng will again find himself alone on those roads, although it will be easier than during the past three years when "zero COVID" regulations forced him to shift at times from "driving winemaker" to "bicycling winemaker" or even "walking winemaker" to reach his clients.

("I had to do it," he says. "There are so many wines for which I need to take responsibility. My job needs to get done.")

This heavy schedule is one reason why he isn't better known. He is simply preoccupied with driving Ningxia wine as far as he can while keeping his clients happy.

"The most important thing is a philosophy of respecting nature, to make pure wine, which means respecting the terroir," says Deng. "We don't create the terroir, we discover it."

And no one is discovering it quite like Deng, the driving winemaker, one km, one client, one wine at a time.