Three days in Ningxia

Day one. Yinchuan and the first taste.

Morning. Fly into Yinchuan and get your bearings: the Helan Mountains to the west, the Yellow River to the east, the Gobi pressing in from everywhere else. Every bottle you are about to taste is an argument with that geography. Afternoon. First winery on the Helan foothills: Helan Qing Xue, whose Jia Bei Lan Cabernet won the Decanter trophy in 2011 and put the whole region on the map. Book ahead through your hotel; English visits exist but need arranging. Evening. Dinner in Yinchuan: hand-pulled noodles, cumin lamb, and a local Cabernet that will quietly rearrange your assumptions.

Day two. The foothills, the serious day.

Morning. Silver Heights, the benchmark producer, where Emma Gao makes the wines that sommeliers smuggle home. Small, personal, book well ahead. Afternoon. Legacy Peak or Kanaan for the second data point: Marselan at the former, Riesling ambitions at the latter. Between visits, look at the vineyard rows and remember every one of these vines spends winter underground. Evening. A winery dinner if offered. The hospitality here is still personal in a way Napa forgot decades ago.

Day three. The history behind the vines.

Morning. The Western Xia tombs at the foot of the Helan range, eleventh century burial mounds of a vanished empire, with the vineyards in sight. The Silk Road ran through here; wine is the newest trade on a very old route. Afternoon. The Helan Shan rock carvings, then one final tasting on the way back. Evening. Last lamb dinner, last glass. You are now ahead of the market, which was the whole point of coming.

Know before you go

When to go. September and October: harvest, warm days, clear desert skies. Avoid winter entirely; it is brutally cold and the vines are buried.

Getting there. Fly to Yinchuan Hedong from Beijing or Shanghai, about two hours. Hire a driver for the winery days; book visits ahead through hotels or the wineries' WeChat.

How many days. Three. Two for wineries, one for the history.

The wineries. Visits are inexpensive but need arranging; spontaneity does not translate here. A guide who speaks Mandarin transforms the trip.

The mistake first timers make. Expecting Napa infrastructure. This is a frontier, gloriously so; the wines are world class, the signage is not yet.

Drink it before you go

Silver Heights The Summit or Family Reserve. The benchmark of Chinese fine wine, if you can find it.

Helan Qing Xue Jia Bei Lan Cabernet. The 2011 Decanter trophy wine that started everything.

Any Ningxia Marselan. The French crossing that may become China's signature grape.

Ningxia is one of twelve places in The Grape Atlas. Learn it in five minutes, free.