ZAXEE Prayer‑Flag White Wine 2024

Prayer flags fluttering beneath Meili Snow Mountain.

Region: Yunnan, China | Grape: 100% Chardonnay | Vintage: 2024 | Style: Oak-Aged Dry White (10-20 year ageing potential) | ABV: 13.0% | Volume: 750ml

Terroir
Ruiwa Village, Deqin, Yunnan, at the foot of Meili Snow Mountain, elevation 2,750m. A hamlet of just 15 households with intense sunshine and UV, a 160-day frost-free period, large diurnal but small annual temperature swings, winter lows no colder than -12°C, average rainfall of 380-450mm, and an average annual temperature of 12°C. Poor, thin soils (leached alpine soil mixed with gravel, pebbles and sandstone), irrigated with snowmelt, entirely hand-farmed.

Winemaking
Entirely hand-harvested, hand-sorted bunch and berry, gently crushed for free-run juice only, with natural cold settling. Slow fermentation in oak barrels over one month, aged on lees for 3 months with regular bâtonnage, then racked and aged a further 3 months — over 6 months in barrel in total before bottling unfiltered.