Domaine de Long Dai: Lafite's Bet in China
The Name
Section titled “The Name”Long (瓏), the polishing of jade. Dai (岱), Mount Tai. Domaine de Long Dai is the estate Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite (DBR Lafite) built in China. From name to architecture to wine style, deliberately understated.
The character long takes its meaning as precious as jade. This is not a brand built to overpower the market with its name.
Gerard Colin: The First Man of Chinese Fine Wine
Section titled “Gerard Colin: The First Man of Chinese Fine Wine”Long Dai’s story begins with a Frenchman.
Gerard Colin, born around 1942 in Madagascar. Master’s in oenology from the University of Bordeaux. Over a decade at Château Teyssier in Saint-Émilion. Also at Château Clarke in Listrac. He first came to China in the early 1990s and in 2001 became consulting winemaker at Shanxi’s Grace Vineyard. Chris Ruffle described him in writing as “a sturdily built man in his sixties who had come from his home in Saint-Émilion to this remote place after a failed business venture.”
Colin introduced Bordeaux technique to Grace Vineyard, planted Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, made Grace one of the earliest Chinese estates to earn international quality recognition. Decanter called him the pioneer of Chinese fine wine.
In 2006, Colin left Grace and joined the Lafite-CITIC joint venture. He was the man who recommended Shandong to the Rothschild family. He believed Penglai’s climate would allow a Bordeaux-style production system. He surveyed and identified Qiushan Valley. Colin once said, “Choosing Penglai meant we knew we would have to do large earthworks.” He believed those who had the patience to wait out the wet season and survive the long dry period would be rewarded with fully ripe fruit.
In March 2013, news came that Colin would leave the Lafite project. The reasons were not made public, but there was an implication of disagreement over project direction. He moved to Puchang Vineyard in Turpan, Xinjiang, partnering with the Cheung family. The Puchang Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 was the last vintage made while he was alive.
On 9 February 2017, Colin died of a heart attack in China at age 75. He had been in China for more than 17 years. His professional trajectory traced the contemporary map of Chinese fine wine: Grace Vineyard (Shanxi) → Long Dai / Lafite (Shandong) → Puchang (Xinjiang).
In 2018, the anthropologist Boris Petric directed a 63-minute documentary, Château Pekin, in tribute to Colin. A single line in the film became his epitaph: “We are not in a winery to do ganbei, guys.”
2008–2017: Nine Years of Work Before a Bottle
Section titled “2008–2017: Nine Years of Work Before a Bottle”Site selection in 2008. Three years to build soil. Three more years to plant. The first wine was made in 2017.
I noted in May 2021 after a Penglai visit: “Selected the site in 2008, spent three years on soil, three more on planting, by the time they made the first wine it was 2017. Making good wine takes growing good grapes first. The Rothschilds’ Long Dai is worth waiting for.”
The DBR team dug more than 400 soil-profile pits to study individual plots. Technical director Juliette Couderc has said the pink granite reminded her of Brittany and Saint-Chinian. Adjacent terraces can have completely different soil profiles, so zoning was done not by location but by grape potential.
40 hectares of land, 32 hectares actually producing, 445 terraced plots in 56 parcels. Variety mix: Cabernet Sauvignon 39%, Marselan 27%, Cabernet Franc 19%, Merlot 9%.
Planting strategy: Marselan on clay; Cabernet Sauvignon on gravel. Plot 53, originally planted to Syrah, had drainage problems, so the wet-summer evaporation could not keep up and mildew became a risk. An Argentine viticulturist was brought in, and the plot was grafted to Petit Verdot.
Spacing 1.4 m × 0.9 m. Modified double Guyot. Cover crops between rows for soil stability, dying back during ripening so they do not compete for resources. Crop thinning starts in June, capping each vine at 8 clusters, hand-removing about one-third.
Marselan Moves From Side Role to Core
Section titled “Marselan Moves From Side Role to Core”The shift in Marselan’s percentage in Long Dai’s blend is the single most important line in understanding the estate, and arguably in understanding Shandong terroir.
| Vintage | Cabernet Sauvignon | Marselan | Cabernet Franc | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | ~50% | 25% | ~25% | First vintage |
| 2018 | 75% | 17% | 8% | Cabernet dominance returns |
| 2019 | 85% | 6% | 9% | Marselan at its lowest |
| 2020 | 56% | 20% | 24% | Cabernet Franc rises sharply |
| 2021 | 50% | 31% | 19% | Marselan breakthrough vintage |
| 2022 | — | ~34% | — | Highest Marselan ever |
Alexander Ma conducted a vertical of 2017–2022. His note on the 2021: “This vintage highlighted Marselan’s vitality and exceptional balance. Before this, the transitions between elements in the wine were still hesitant.” By 2022, “with Marselan at 34%, the overall rhythm is markedly more coherent. The winemaking team is showing a new confidence.”
Technical differentiation across varieties: Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc are vinified traditionally Bordeaux-style. Marselan goes through gentle extractions, encouraging slow diffusion of aromatic and phenolic compounds. Stainless-steel fermenters, temperature-controlled, small vessels (15–90 hl), gentle pumping over for colour and tannin.
The Wines: A Vertical Note
Section titled “The Wines: A Vertical Note”2017 (first vintage). 50% CS, 25% CF, 25% Marselan. Lovely red berries, fresh blueberry and black cherry, refined spice and subdued sandalwood. Medium-to-full body, tight, fine tannins. James Suckling 94. Alexander Ma: “The richness of Marselan was perfectly balanced by the structure of Cabernet.”
2018. 75% CS, 17% Marselan, 8% CF. Blackberry, cocoa, spice, dry tobacco. Finely structured. James Suckling 96. Robert Parker Wine Advocate 93. Alexander Ma considers this the most impressive vintage.
2019. 85% CS, 9% CF, 6% Marselan. Liquorice, dark chocolate, cedar. Firm tannins. An almost completely dry year, with only Typhoon Lekima passing through. Strong concentration and energy.
2020. 56% CS, 24% CF, 20% Marselan. A charming bouquet of blueberry, spice, and mint. Lively fruit over deep, rounded tannins. Blackcurrant, liquorice, floral notes. Pleasing acidity and a savoury mineral edge. James Suckling 94. The vintage made by Denise Cosentino.
2021. 50% CS, 31% Marselan, 19% CF. Deep purple. Black cherry, blackberry, blackcurrant, mulberry, blueberry, with some leafy herbal lift. Oak adding vanilla, clove, toast, smoke. Long finish, age-worthy, already drinkable.
My own field tasting (Hu Yue 2019): 14.5% ABV, five-variety blend at 57% Cabernet Sauvignon. Fruit-led, but tannins are abrupt on the entry, the finish ends sharply, the structure breaks down before it should. A more exuberant style, with a Penglai signature, that sea air and saline note. Honestly, the gap between Hu Yue and Long Dai itself is significant.
Denise Cosentino: From Nine Peaks to Long Dai to Ornellaia
Section titled “Denise Cosentino: From Nine Peaks to Long Dai to Ornellaia”A University of Turin graduate, with master’s degrees from Montpellier and Bordeaux. She came to China in 2014, the first Italian female winemaker in the country.
She first joined the 2015 Ningxia International Winemaker Challenge (17 countries, 48 winemakers, each given 3 hectares to make wine independently). Then she spent around three vintages (2017–2019) as cellar master at Nine Peaks. After the 2019 harvest she said: “Up to now, 2019 has been the best vintage I have experienced in Shandong.” On winemaking style: “The style will be Chinese, Nine Peaks’ Chinese style. The goal is to express the maximum potential of this land’s grapes through different techniques, always pursuing refinement and elegance.”
In September 2020, DBR Lafite hired her as technical director at Long Dai. From a boutique estate to a Lafite-owned property: a major step up. She led the 2020 vintage and others. Her gentle-extraction method for Marselan, rather than traditional Bordeaux extraction, came from her technical judgment.
On 1 January 2024 Cosentino formally became winemaker at Ornellaia in Bolgheri, succeeding the departing Olga Fusari. The Ornellaia estate director Axel Heinz had moved to Château Lascombes in Margaux in March 2023, triggering the chain of moves.
From a young Shandong estate to a Tuscan Super Tuscan: the leap itself confirms what she had built in China. Long Dai’s current technical team is led by Juliette Couderc (resident technical director) and Olivier Trégoat (DBR’s technical director, also overseeing Château L’Évangile and others).
A Pricing Debate
Section titled “A Pricing Debate”Long Dai’s price is the topic you cannot avoid.
Wine-Searcher’s average is around US$720 per bottle including tax. James Suckling’s high score is 94. A comparison:
| Wine | Region | Avg USD | Score range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long Dai | Shandong | $450–720 | 91–94 |
| Ao Yun | Yunnan | $296–350 | 92–95 |
| Pichon Baron (2ème Cru) | Pauillac | $100–180 | 94–97 |
| Lynch-Bages (5ème Cru) | Pauillac | $80–130 | 93–96 |
| Pontet-Canet (5ème Cru) | Pauillac | $90–150 | 95–98 |
| Opus One | Napa | $350–450 | 94–97 |
Jim Boyce, the senior independent journalist on Chinese wine, published two alternative lists in November 2023: “Ten Chinese wines to buy for the price of one Long Dai.” He directly questioned the launch timing of Long Dai, calling it “a wave that has already passed.”
Wine-Searcher’s November 2025 report used the phrase “snail-paced sales and dust-collecting inventory” to describe China’s premium-wine market difficulty. Long Dai’s demand has been falling over the past year. No active secondary auction market. No evidence of appreciation.
Jancis Robinson’s evaluation was relatively positive. “More understated in packaging and style than many of China’s most ambitious reds.” And “recognizably Lafite-style without overdoing it.” Bloomberg’s Elin McCoy also found it “unlike any other luxury Chinese red.”
My take: Long Dai is a good wine, that is not in question. The question is how good relative to a $450–720 price. The same money buys higher-rated, more age-worthy Bordeaux Second to Fifth Growths. Lafite’s brand premium stacked on top of the first Chinese scarcity premium, both layered into a market down 91%. How long the layering holds is a real question.
Long Dai itself: 45,000 bottles, RMB 2,488. Hu Yue (second wine): 20,000 bottles, RMB 988. The very small production objectively supports the scarcity pricing. But if the comparison is to quality rather than to scarcity, the price is on the high side.
The Serious Part Is Real
Section titled “The Serious Part Is Real”Having said all of that, why is Long Dai still the most important estate in Shandong?
Because the terroir work is serious. Four hundred soil-profile pits are not theatre. Marselan rising from 6% to 34% is not a market-driven move. The 2022 wine had not yet been released; the increase reflects the team’s honest reading of how Shandong climate and grape variety match. Cosentino designing gentle extraction specifically for Marselan shows the team is not simply copying Bordeaux at the technical level.
The place Colin chose, the granite, those terraces, all of it has been working for almost twenty years now. The vines are growing, the roots are going deeper, the team’s reading of the place is accumulating. Long Dai’s best vintages may still be ahead of it.
PLACEHOLDER:hero-long-dai at the top. PLACEHOLDER:portrait-gerard-colin inside §2. PLACEHOLDER:photo-soil-profile inside §3 — a soil-profile pit from the 400-pit survey. PLACEHOLDER:chart-marselan-percentage inside §4 — line chart of Marselan % across 2017–2022. PLACEHOLDER:portrait-cosentino inside §6.