Tiansai: A Virgo Plants Grapes in the Gobi
A Virgo Plants Grapes in the Gobi
Section titled “A Virgo Plants Grapes in the Gobi”In 2007, Chen Lizhong came to the Yanqi Basin for the first time.
She was not there to scout an estate, Yanqi had almost no estates at the time. A business trip happened to bring her through Bayingolin Prefecture. Seeing the red cliffs of the southern Tianshan, she was knocked off-balance.
Chen Lizhong’s CV is an outlier among Chinese estate owners. Renmin University Law School graduate, former judge. In 1996 she walked away from the bench and took over a Beijing auto-services company. Photographer. Wine enthusiast. When she learned the Yanqi Basin’s grape-cultivation history and its climate, she made a decision everyone called crazy: build an estate in the Gobi.
Friends suggested she buy an existing estate in France or Australia. She refused. “Build a Chinese brand. From zero.”
The Yanqi government leased her 2,000 mu of saline Gobi land. Literally a desert, barren enough that the soil had to be improved before vines could be planted. Chen Lizhong and her team faced wind, extreme temperature, and zero infrastructure.
In 2010, Tiansai was formally founded.
Chen Lizhong is, by all accounts, a planner. Tiansai has executed almost exactly to her original blueprint. In one of the busiest years she flew between Beijing and Xinjiang 153 times.
The Two Meanings of the Name
Section titled “The Two Meanings of the Name”Tiansai carries two meanings.
The first is from photography. The Carl Zeiss Tessar lens, a 100-year-old optical classic. Tessar comes from the Greek tessera, meaning four. Both founding partners were photography enthusiasts; the name honors a century-old classic.
The second is geographical. The estate sits at the foot of the Tianshan. Tiansai = under the Heavenly Mountains, an estate beyond the frontier.
A German lens and a Chinese mountain crossing each other. That East-West mash-up runs through Tiansai’s story.
The Team: A Top-Tier Stack
Section titled “The Team: A Top-Tier Stack”The Tiansai winemaking team is, on paper, top-of-class among Chinese boutiques.
Li Demei. Winemaking consultant, professor at Beijing University of Agriculture. In 2013 The Drinks Business named him one of the Ten Most Influential Wine Consultants Globally, the only Asian. He is also the key promoter of Marselan in China, and the chief consultant at Zhongfei. At Tiansai, Li is not only a winemaking director; he is the architect of varietal strategy.
Lilian Carter. Chief winemaker, joined in 2012. Adelaide University oenology, worked at Pernod Ricard and LVMH. An Australian who has done Bordeaux and Barossa, now in one of China’s driest regions. The international vantage point and technical standard she brings are part of the foundation that lets Tiansai earn 95 at DWWA.
Jiang Yanjun. Chief engineer. 30+ years of front-line winemaking. If Li Demei is the strategic brain and Carter the international quality benchmark, Jiang is the day-to-day execution backbone.
The Chinese professor + Australian winemaker + senior local engineer triangle is unusual in Chinese estates. Most are either purely local, or hire one foreigner as a periodic consultant. Tiansai’s internationalization runs deep.
A 30-Variety Trial Garden
Section titled “A 30-Variety Trial Garden”Tiansai grows 30+ varieties.
A number worth pausing on. Most Bordeaux estates plant five or six. Ningxia estates lead with Cabernet, support with Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Tiansai grows 30+: Cabernet, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Marselan, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Viognier, Muscat, Chardonnay, plus 20+ trial varieties.
The logic is clear, try everything, then learn what is best. Systematic exploration. The Yanqi Basin is a young region; no centuries of accumulated experience tells you what suits it. Tiansai’s method: plant broadly, then narrow.
The result is showing. Tiansai has shifted from Cabernet dominance toward a multi-variety strategy, especially highlighting Syrah and Marselan. The logic:
One, Yanqi’s dry heat and very low disease pressure naturally suit Syrah. Tiansai Syrah shows dense dark fruit, pepper, smoke, close in profile to Barossa Shiraz.
Two, Marselan as a Chinese-potential signature variety is being pushed nationally; Li Demei is one of the pushers. Under Yanqi’s dry heat, Marselan actually shows more elegance and balance, confirmed by Boulard’s tasting.
Three, however good your Cabernet, you cannot compete head-to-head with Bordeaux or Napa on Cabernet. Differentiation is the exit.
T Series and S Series
Section titled “T Series and S Series”Tiansai’s wine names follow a system. T for Tian, S for Sai. Numbers are blend iterations, and carry brand symbolism.
| Wine | Variety | Tier | Number meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| T95 | 100% Marselan | Top flagship | Imperial 95; 95 blending trials |
| T50 | 100% Syrah | High-end flagship | 50 parcels selected, 50 trials |
| T35 | Syrah + Viognier | Classic blend | 35 trials; honors Côte-Rôtie |
| T20 | Chardonnay / Syrah-Marselan | Strategic core | Tiansai 2.0 era |
| S19 / S20 | Cabernet + Merlot | Mid-tier | Bordeaux-style blend |
Skyline of Gobi is the other major brand line, including Classic, Reserve, Premium Reserve, Zodiac-Year, and other sub-lines.
The T35 is inspired by the Côte-Rôtie blend, Syrah with a small portion of Viognier. In Côte-Rôtie, this pairing has hundreds of years behind it. Tiansai brought it to the Yanqi Basin and reinterpreted it with Xinjiang’s Syrah and Viognier. Interesting concept; execution another matter.
International Track Record
Section titled “International Track Record”Tiansai’s record on the international circuit is the strongest among Xinjiang estates.
| Year | Competition | Wine | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | DWWA | Skyline of Gobi Rooster-Year Chardonnay-Muscat | Platinum |
| 2019 | DWWA | Skyline of Gobi Cabernet Red Label 2015 | Gold (90) |
| 2019 | DWWA | Skyline of Gobi Marselan Premium 2015 | Gold (90) |
| 2023 | DWWA | Skyline of Gobi Premium Reserve Marselan 2017 | Gold (95) |
| 2023 | DWWA | T50 Syrah 2020 | Gold (95) |
| 2023 | China Wine Summit | T35 Syrah-Viognier 2020 | 93 (D’Agata) |
Cumulative awards exceed 300. Twice named Winery of the Year by RVF China.
DWWA Gold at 95 carries weight, the highest score for any Xinjiang wine in DWWA history, and Tiansai is the only Xinjiang estate ever to take DWWA Gold. Two in a single year.
In the Glass: My ProWein Tasting
Section titled “In the Glass: My ProWein Tasting”At ProWein Shanghai 2024, I attended Tiansai’s masterclass.
The masterclass was very well done. Chen Lizhong’s team has polished the brand narrative to a high finish, Yanqi terroir, the 30-variety trial, mechanized burial, T-series blending philosophy. Crisp slides, clear logic, every data point on hand.
Then the wines.
S19, Cabernet–Merlot. Integration insufficient. Acidity prominent. The Bordeaux pairing concept; in the glass, the Cabernet and the Merlot felt like two people talking past each other. Acidity was forward, not as freshness, but as bare acidity that the fruit had not enveloped.
T35, Syrah–Viognier. Heavy oak. The Côte-Rôtie inspiration is sound, but in this bottle the oak presence, caramel, toast, vanilla, covered the fruit. Integration again not yet there. You could pick out each component, oak, Syrah, Viognier, but they had not become one wine. D’Agata scored this wine’s 2020 vintage at 93. I did not taste the 93.
T50, 100% Syrah. The best wine of the day. Fruit consistency was high, dense dark fruit, contained, not over the top. Tannins tight and structural. Compared with the previous two, T50’s purity was clearly stronger. Possibly because it is a single variety and does not require blending integration, the largest weakness was bypassed.
My masterclass note: Tiansai’s name is bigger than the glass, especially compared with Phantom Creek this morning.
That line needs context. That morning I had tasted Phantom Creek (Okanagan, Canada). Their Cabernet Franc and Syrah were refined, balanced, restrained. Switching to Tiansai in the afternoon, the gap appeared.
A Fair Assessment
Section titled “A Fair Assessment”Criticism noted. Now a balanced read.
Tiansai has done many things right. A 30-variety systematic trial is extremely rare in Chinese estates. Mechanized burial solves a real regional pain point. International-team winemaking guarantees a technical floor. Brand narrative is polished, from masterclass to Sky Edge Small Town, from ProWein to DWWA, Tiansai is among the best Chinese estates at telling a story.
The DWWA 95s are real. The S19 and T35 I tasted may not have been the best vintages, or the tasting setting (large glasses at a masterclass vs. small blind glasses in competition) may not flatter the wines. International blind tasting follows strict protocol; 95 is not given casually.
Tiansai’s core issue is not the ceiling, it is consistency. T50 and Premium Marselan can reach international fine-wine standards. S-series and parts of the T-series still have visible integration issues, oak management and blending precision are areas to grow. Tiansai’s ceiling is high enough; the floor is not high enough.
In Xinjiang, Tiansai is the benchmark. No other Xinjiang estate has two DWWA Gold 95s. No other has invested in varietal trial at this scale. Chen Lizhong built a 4A-rated tourism estate from saline Gobi soil that hosts tens of thousands of guests a year, that is real commercial execution.
But against the wider field, Silver Heights, Helan Qingxue, Kanaan in Ningxia, or Ao Yun in Yunnan, Tiansai still has distance to cover in the glass. The gap is not terroir, Yanqi is no worse than Ningxia, the gap is in winemaking philosophy and execution precision, especially in oak and blending.
Tiansai is Xinjiang’s most internationally renowned estate. The distance between renown and what is in the glass is real, and worth closing.
Tourism
Section titled “Tourism”Tiansai is the best wine-tourism estate in Yanqi.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Tourism rating | National AAAA |
| Sky Edge Small Town | Opened May 2023; 120-bed lodging, 1,000-seat dining |
| Tasting centers | Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Urumqi, Korla |
| Annual visitors | Tens of thousands |
| Phone | 0996-8710000 |
| Website | www.tsjz.com |
Sky Edge Small Town deserves its own line. Less an estate hotel than a vineyard-surrounded micro-resort, rooms, restaurant, star-tent camping, rare-bird corridor, fruit-and-vegetable touring garden. If you can visit one Xinjiang estate, Tiansai’s experience completeness is the highest.
In late 2021, Baoyun Group made a strategic investment in Tiansai; founder Li Shiyi became co-chairman. Capital arrival means Tiansai’s next phase is not only about making wine, but also about cracking the market layer.
Chen Lizhong’s daughter, Zhu Lili, has been running the social-media account Little Estate Owner’s Daily Decant since 2020, touring Chinese wine regions and pushing Chinese wine into digital format. The Tiansai succession narrative is extending from the Gobi to short-video platforms.
PLACEHOLDER:hero-tiansai at the top. PLACEHOLDER:portrait-chen-lizhong inside §1, Chen Lizhong at the estate. PLACEHOLDER:photo-sky-edge-town inside the tourism section.