Miao Lu
Miao Lu (淼庐) is Alex Xu’s estate in Yuhu Village, in the mountains of Yunnan in China’s far southwest. The vineyard sits at about 9,100 feet (2,800 meters) at the foot of Jade Dragon Snow Mountain. Miao Lu means “Cottage of Boundless Water.” It is the name of the family home, and the winery is named in its honor. We think it may be one of the most ambitious wine projects in China, if not the world.
After running a restaurant in Shanghai, he went to learn and work with the growers he admired: Domaine Dujac in Morey-Saint-Denis, Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey in Chassagne-Montrachet, Bindi in Australia and Aurum in Central Otago.
The project began in 2015, when Alex noticed large rocks being cleared from a fallow field near his family’s village. The soil there was thought too poor to farm and water drained too quickly so no one had grown anything on it for about forty years. After a year and a half studying the climate and soils, he planted just over three hectares of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in May 2017. That vineyard is La Roche. The soils are sandy, with limestone and almost no clay. The altitude keeps the growing season cool with highs in the mid 70s, while the intense high-altitude sunlight ripens skins and seeds fully, so the wines reach real maturity at low alcohol. The 2024 is just under 12%.
The farming is extraordinarily hands-on. The first vines were planted at about 6,000 per hectare, and newer parcels go as high as 20,000 to 33,000. Alex now propagates his own vines in a greenhouse on site, including massal-selection cuttings from Dujac. Each vine is pruned to just four buds, so there is no need to drop fruit later. Every vine is worked by hand at least nine times each season, not counting spraying. Yields are tiny: about 12 hectoliters per hectare in 2024 and about 7 in 2025, after dry stress at flowering. No synthetic fungicides have ever been used in the area, so the native yeasts are intact, and fermentations start the morning after picking.
In the cellar Alex works by feel and by foot. The Pinot Noir is fermented with whole clusters. The bottom third of the fruit is lightly foot-crushed to start fermentation, and the rest is broken gently over three or four days with twice-daily foot punch-downs; Alex works hard to avoid any carbonic character. Fermentations stay cool, below 28°C (82°F). After pressing and two days of settling, the wine goes straight to new François Frères barrels with a custom light, long toast. There it rests for 16 months with no racking, and it is bottled by gravity straight from barrel. The Chardonnay spends two years on its lees in barrels made from Loche forest oak. Both are sealed with Diam closures for consistency.
2024 is the first commercial vintage of La Roche, with roughly 1,000 bottles each of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The Pinot Noir is pure, elegant and deceptively concentrated, and it rewards patience: opened at lunch, it was at its best by evening. If you have a bottle, give it a long decant. The 2024 Chardonnay, after its two years in barrel, will be released in 2027 alongside the 2025 Pinot Noir.
Our wines from Miao Lu
- 2024 La Roche Pinot Noir
- 2024 La Roche Chardonnay (releasing in 2027 with the 2025 Pinot Noir)
For availability, contact us or join our Private Allocation Registry.