“I have worked with 20 different grape varieties in six countries since I finished university and for me this has been a dream come true,” says Jose Hernandez Gonzalez of Spain, when asked about his biggest achievement. He also cites a gold medal won in the “Concours Général Agricole de Paris 2011” while he was working at Domaine René Ours in Cotes du Rhône in France.

“I’m always hungry for travel and to visit wine regions, to taste many different wines and to observe many wineries,” says Hernandez. “This has allowed me to work with the same varieties in different countries, observing their versatility in diverse conditions and discovering a wide range of possibilities in winemaking.”

With degrees in oenology from the University of Bordeaux in France and technical agricultural engineering from INEA-Universidad de Valladolid in Spain, Gonzalez has taken his education with him on those travels. Along with his experience at Domaine René Ours, he has been a winemaker at Naia Vineyard in Rueda in Spain, a wine-making assistant at Kleinood Estate in South Africa, and done everything from working in the cellar at Screaming Eagle in Napa Valley in the United States and Tinlins Winery in McLaren Vale in Australia to being an intern at Chateau Lynch-Bages in Bordeaux.

When asked what grape he would work with if he had to pick one, Hernandez cites Syrah. “She is very generous (as a grape), she is quite adaptable, and you can make very different kinds of wines, from easy drinking to more complex.”

Website Wine China was among those posting stories — see here — and posted this photo.

(Credit for first two photos to PM)

Beigner is owner at Pécany, a winery he is developing in Pomport, France. He has had a wide range of positions in the wine industry. They range from making wine at nearby Chateau Le Chrisly to consulting at CEIOE, a center in Pauillac for studying oenology, to working as a broker at Bureau Gardère-Haramboure, also in Pauillac.

Beigner has also interned at Château Lafite-Rothschild, Château Latour, Château Smith Haut Lafitte and Château Haut-Bailly, among others, and had a short stint as a salesperson at Magnum Wines in Shanghai in 2011. In fact, that was his second visit to China. He first came in 2010, when he spent about a month in the country and had a chance to live in Shanghai and Beijing.

He also has a Master of Enology at Victor Ségalen Bordeaux and master degrees in engineering and in international business.

Beigner cites the chance to work with French wine-makers Michel Rolland and Denis Dubourdieu as among the highlights of his wine career and says his aim is to expand his experience.

“To understand taste, and the wishes of customers, from your country or other countries, is really necessary to adapt my mind during wine-making,” he says.

He adds that if he could make wine from one grape, he would pick Cabernet Sauvigon.

“Cabernet Sauvignon wine is powerful, aromatic and full-bodied, and this variety is suitable for giving wines a long capacity for aging.”

Prior to being a wine-making consultant, Tyney was senior winemaker and manager of Marlborough Vintners. During that time, he managed more than 20 branded clients, 50 vintage staff at harvest, and worked with grapes such as Pinot Noir, Riesling, Chardonnay, Gewurtztraminer, Pinot Gris, Merlot and Gruner Veltliner. In addition to managing wine-making teams, Tyney has had experience with lab staff, budgeting, supplier and client relationships, and implementing new winery systems

“From a wine business perspective, systems and processes are the most important of any winery operation,” he says.

Tyney also worked at Giesen Wine Estate in Blenheim, New Zealand, at Constellation Winery in Monterey, California, and at Yalumba Wine Company in Barossa Valley, South Australia.

Among his achievements, he cites an experience during an extremely wet and high disease-prone harvest. Given the wine team could not stop the rain, it took alternative measures.

“One included using a helicopter to hover in front of the harvester to blow off unwanted moisture from the rain,” he says. The result: to deliver fruit with more sugar concentration.

In terms of his motivation for coming to Ningxia, Tyney notes that he is no stranger to China. “My parents have lived in Shanghai and Beijing for the several years. I have visited China three times recently and find the culture, landscape and people fascinating,” he says.

“I would like to visit China more often and would embrace any opportunity to share my wine-making experiences with Chinese consumers and professionals,” he explains. “I believe that the Chinese wine industry is rapidly growing and I would like to be part of this.”

Wine Press, official magazine of Wine Marlborough, has published a story about David Tyney, currently at Cirro Wines and previously at Marlborough Vintners, and Patricia Miranda of Yealands Estate.

Describing the trip to China as “a chance of a lifetime” and Ningxia as having “a reputation for stunning reds”, writer Tessa Nicholson notes that Tyney and Miranda will make both a red wine and a white wine during the stay. She quotes Miranda as saying:

I have never been to China, but I have been aware that they are producing some very interesting wines. And the wine industry is growing exponentially there. I was interested in that before I applied for the competition.

And Tyney as saying:

I was interested in Ningxia Wine Challenge for a number of reasons. Firstly, my parents have lived in China for the past three years and I have visited them regularly. It [China] gets better and more interesting every time I go back. On my last trip I was fortunate enough to consult to a group of officials in Yunnan Province on a recently established vineyard for ice wine production. This was an amazing experience to see vines planted in a small village which is thousands of years old and at an altitude you would not believe.”

Meanwhile, Deborah Walton-Derry and Peter Morice of Marlborough Express have covered Miranda’s journey to Ningxia. In an story titled, “Yealands winemaker secures trip to China”, they write:

Wine has the ability to not only bring people together, but to bring whole cultures together, too. The Ningxia Wine Challenge is a perfect case in point, with one of Marlborough’s winemakers, Patricia Miranda-Taylor, currently in China and experiencing harvest and winemaking in the Ningxia region.

They note that she moved to Yealands Estate in March of 2012 after working at Isabel Estate and has also done vintages in countries such as Germany and France. That international resume will soon include a stint in China:

She is staying in Yinchuan, the capital of the Ningxia region. Before leaving she was told that due to cool weather and rain the harvest will be later than expected. Once the harvest is under way the white varieties will come in first — around 21 September, followed by the red from 5 October. Fermentation should be finished about three weeks after the harvest.

She is both nervous and excited about the trip, which is something of a working holiday that also includes introductions to the other nine successful international winemakers, a seminar, dinners, wine tastings and visits to wineries.

For the full story, see here. And expect more on local and international coverage of the Ningxia Wine Challenge.

Bring on the grapes!

The Ningxia Wine Challenge participants headed into wine country on Sunday afternoon to get a look at some of the equipment they will use. The plan is to give the winemakers the same equipment — for example, the fermentation tanks are of an identical size — and the organizers have quickly put this together over the past month at newly established vineyard and winery Da De, which roughly translates to “morality is the highest virtue” — trust me, it is more elegant in Chinese. Call it Ningxia’s version of “build it and they will come”.

The paint is barely dry at Da De.

The Challenge winemakers get tanked.

(From left) Benoit Beigner, Eleni Papadakis, David Tyney and José Hernández González check out the equipment.

The winemakers gorged on everything from roast mutton, oxtail and fish to baked goods and salads garnished with one of Ningxia’s most famous products, wolfberries. Pictured below: Gonzalez, Jones, Ma and Wang Zhenping, professor at Ningxia University.

Also of note: David Tyney, with an assist from Carl van der Merwe and to the amusement of Jose Gonzalez (and everyone else), ate the chicken’s head. If such daring is transferred to the vineyard and winery, Tyney’s prospects in the challenge look very good.

• Benoit Beigner (France)
• José Hernández González (Spain)
• Penny Jones (Australia)
• Patricia Miranda (Chile and New Zealand)
• Eleni Papadakis (United States)
• David Tyney (Australia)
• Carl van der Merwe (South Africa)

Beigner and Gonzalez arrived in late August and have been busy doing everything from visiting vineyards to riding camels — though they have yet to do both at the same time. Three other winemakers accepted to the challenge were unable to attend due to personal or logistical reasons, although there are hopes of involving them at a future stage.

Note: “Jia you!” literally translates as “add oil” and is used as encouragement by sports fans for their teams, teachers for their students, and friends for each other. It broadly means “Do your best!” or, more simply “Go!“

The first three Ningxia Wine Challengers to arrive pose with Mr Yuen of Yuen Shi Winery and Resort. From left: Jose Gonzalez, Mr Yuen, Carl van der Merwe and Benoit Beigner.

“My ultimate philosophy is to intervene as little as possible and allow the inherent quality of the origin to be expressed whilst always being aware of global quality levels and styles and what wines I will be competing against in various price levels,” states Carl van der Merwe, when asked about his approach to making wine.

Van der Merwe has a decade of wine-making experience in Stellenbosch, South Africa, first at Quoin Rock Estate and now at Demorgenzon Estate, where he is also general manager, which means involvement in budgets, product design, marketing, and vineyard management, among other areas.

With a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural, Oenology and Business Management from University of Stellenbosch in hand, van der Merwe had stints at Winecorp and international harvest experience at Chateau Pichon Longueville and Chateau Chasse Spleen in Bordeaux and at Bookwalter Winery in Washington State. He has toured wine regions that range from Rust in Austria to the Loire Valley in France to Ribera del Duero in Spain to British Columbia and Ontario in Canada.

When asked what grape he would work with, if he could only pick one, van der Merwe said that he adores Pinot Noir and Riesling but he would choose Cabernet Sauvignon.

“Across a selection of different countries, Cabernet Sauvignon is capable of producing wines of great depth and complexity with a freshness and ability to mature,” he says. “I love the structure of Cabernet and am fascinated by its reaction to soil moisture levels and the resultant structure in the wine.”

~

When asked about her proudest wine achievements, Penny Jones, senior winemaker at Petaluma Winery in the Adelaide Hills region of Australia, cites “largely unseen changes to the Chardonnay production process.”

These changes, she explains, reduced the handling of the fruit and juice and, in turn, raised the quality and longevity of the final product. Given this answer, it is not surprising she cites “fastidious attention to detail” as part of her philosophy of making wine.

Jones has been at Petaluma since 2004 and works with South Australian grapes from that region as well as from the Clare Valley and Coonawarra. The varieties included Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Gewurztaminer, Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. She handles daily wine-making duties and is also involved in marketing, hosting overseas guests, dealing with trade customers and managing budgets.

“The Ningxia Wine Challenge offers a tremendous opportunity to put my current skills to the test in an unfamiliar landscape, whilst meeting with nine other winemakers from around the globe, each with their own wine-making philosophies, no doubt vastly different from my own,” she stated, when applying for the contest. “The opportunity to learn new techniques and philosophies from this vast knowledge base, and deal with unfamiliar varieties, is incredibly exciting.”

And she brings some China experience.

“I traveled alone to Beijing, China via train from Hanoi, Vietnam in 2010, and spent three glorious weeks visiting friends in Beijing,” she states. “I love exploring international cultures — with a heavy focus on the food — and am fascinated by the ancient history of China and the more recent developments in wine production there.”

Jones holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science in Oenology from University of Adelaide, where she won several academic awards, including the Leo Buring Gold Medal Prize for most distinguished student in oenology.