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.