西鸽酒庄成立于2017年，酒庄的创立者张言志，是法国波尔多葡萄酒学院毕业的专业酿酒师，曾师从世界葡萄酒教父级人物Denis Dubourdieu教授，也是波尔多葡萄酒学会（Académie du vin de Bordeaux ）的首位中国籍成员。他的目标，是酿造一款被专业人士喜爱、行销世界的“中国葡萄酒”，而西鸽酒庄就是为这个目标而创立。

 

西鸽酒庄选址于宁夏贺兰山东麓青铜峡鸽子山产区，贺兰山东麓被众多国际专业人士誉为“中国葡萄酒的未来”，而青铜峡则是贺兰山东麓最早规模化种植葡萄的产区，也是拥有深厚历史底蕴的古老土地，一万年前的旧石器文明在酒庄旁边的“鸽子山遗址”留下了历史的痕迹。酒庄在鸽子山产区拥有30000亩葡萄园，其中15000亩是22年树龄以上的老藤葡萄园，5000亩是2017年后种植的葡萄园，现还有10000亩葡萄园新项目正在建设中。葡萄园坐落在贺兰山脚下的冲积层上，土壤类型丰富，有沙质土壤、粘土土壤、碎石土壤等，为葡萄品种提供了多样性的自然条件。根据不同土壤特点，酒庄种植了蛇龙珠、赤霞珠、黑比诺等红葡萄酒品种，以及霞多丽、长相思等白葡萄品种，这些品种在当地凉爽干燥、阳光充足的气候条件下表现非常优异。酒庄也选择了马瑟兰、琼瑶浆等20多个品种做尝试，并希望在未来找到更适合当地风土的葡萄品种。

 

西鸽酒庄的建筑具有当代特色，它是用近20万块贺兰山石垒成的具有中国古城特色兼具现代感的巨大圆形建筑，其外圆内方的建筑结构既蕴涵着中国传统文化的谦和智慧，又彰显着成为国际顶级酒庄的勃勃雄心。酒庄总建筑面积约2.5万平米，包含葡萄酒酿造区、橡木桶酒窖、灌装区、瓶装陈酿酒窖、专业品鉴区、游客接待中心、庄园酒店和有机特色餐厅，年设计产能1000万瓶。

 

西鸽酒庄拥有中国先进的生产设备，包括拥有自主专利技术的发酵罐、新西兰智能温控酿造系统、德国和法国领先的前处理设备、意大利先进灌装线、葡萄园智慧农业控制系统、数千只法国橡木桶等，这些设施为西鸽酿造高产量、高品质的葡萄酒提供了必要基础。正是基于这些先进的设备，以及高标准的工艺要求，西鸽酒庄2019年10月通过世界最高标准的“BRC国际质量认证”。

 

西鸽，以“让世界爱上中国葡萄酒”的朴素理想，正在向世界讲述中国葡萄酒的故事。

Xige Estate, founded in 2017, is a top winery which is the most world-leading and largest producer of quality wines at Helan Mountain’s east foothill wine region of Ningxia. It is also an innovative winery that seeks to blaze new trails for Chinese wines. Its founder Zhang Yanzhi, a Bordeaux L'Ecole du Vin trained winemaker, used to sit under Professor Denis Dubourdieu, who has been known as the “Godfather of world wines”, and is the first Chinese member in Académie du vin de Bordeaux. His goal is to make a “Chinese wine variety” liked by professionals and sold all over the world, and that’s why Xige Estate was founded.

 

Xige Estate is located in the Dove Mountain vineyards area in Qingtongxia at Helan Mountain’s east foothill of Ningxia. The Helan Mountain’s east foothill is praised as “the future of Chinese wines” by many international professionals, and Qingtongxia is the earliest area that has considerable plantings of vines, as well as a place with profound historical deposits, where the “Dove Mountain Site” from the Paleolithic age 10,000 years ago was preserved. Xige Estate currently has 1,333.33 hectares of vines in this area, including 1,000 hectares over 22 years old and the other 333.33 hectares newly planted since 2017. The cool and dry climate with sufficient sunshine and rich soil types including alluvial sand, clay soil and gravel in the fertile alluvium deposits at the foot of Helan Mountain have allowed a wide range of grape varieties to grow well here, including Cabernet Gernischt, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir for red and Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc for white. Two dozen varieties including Marselan and Traminer are also tried and it is expected that varieties fitting local terroir better can be found. 

 

Built with nearly 200,000 stones from Helan Mountain, the circular-shaped Xige Estate Winery is like a fortress boasting a sleek design and Chinese motifs. The architectural structure with a round outside but square inside implies the quality of modesty and wisdom in Chinese traditional culture while also manifesting its ambition of becoming a world top winery. On its 25,000 km2 land, there are production workshops, oak barrel cellar, filling workshop, bottled aged wine cellar, professional tasting area, visitor center, winery hotel and organic restaurant. The most complete facilities and highest architectural standard in Ningxia enable it to have an annual designed capacity of 10 million bottles. 

 

Xige Estate is a winery with the most advanced production equipment in China, including the fermentation tanks with proprietary intellectual property rights, intelligent temperature-control brewing system from New Zealand, advanced pretreatment equipment from Germany and France, advanced filling line from Italy, vineyard intelligent agricultural control system and thousands of French oak barrels, which are quite necessary for the high production and high quality of wines. Based on the advanced equipment and high requirements on crafts, Xige Estate is the first among Chinese wineries passing the world highest “BRC international quality certification” in October 2019.  

 

Aspiring to “CHINESE TO,” Xige is telling the stories of Chinese wines to the world.