Chateau Nine Peaks: Qingdao's Quiet Outlier
An estate built next to a low-elevation lake outside Qingdao, run by an Italian winemaker, focused on Cabernet Franc and Marselan. One of Shandong's best.
A Different Shandong
Section titled “A Different Shandong”If you drove east along the coast from Penglai, you would not reach Nine Peaks. Nine Peaks is in the south of Shandong’s coastal arc, just outside Qingdao, by the Jiulong Reservoir. Different climate, different soil, different mood.
Penglai is a wine theme park with hundreds of estate brands; Nine Peaks operates on the one estate, one focus model. Penglai sits inside the Bohai gulf wind pattern; Nine Peaks gets Yellow Sea airflow, more humid, more typhoon-prone in summer. Penglai is volcanic and clay loam; Nine Peaks is on a granite ridge with quartzite gravel inlay.
The estate is owned by Hong Kong–listed Shouchen International Holdings. Built in 2009. About 50 hectares of vineyard, including 22 hectares of Cabernet Sauvignon, 13 hectares of Merlot, 5 hectares of Cabernet Franc, 6 hectares of Chardonnay, 4 hectares of Marselan. Modest by Chinese-estate standards.
What Nine Peaks does have is a clear identity: long-term focus on Cabernet Franc and Marselan as its style anchor. Most Shandong estates default to Cabernet Sauvignon. Nine Peaks asked a different question.
Denise Cosentino’s Three Years Here
Section titled “Denise Cosentino’s Three Years Here”The Italian winemaker Denise Cosentino was at Nine Peaks from 2017 to 2019. We met her in the Long Dai profile; her trajectory at Nine Peaks → Long Dai → Ornellaia is the most important career arc in recent Shandong winemaking.
She arrived at Nine Peaks after the 2015 Ningxia International Winemaker Challenge. Her brief was clear: build the Chateau Nine Peaks Reserve range, with Cabernet Franc and Marselan at the core.
The 2019 vintage, made by her, was her own benchmark moment: “The best vintage I have experienced in Shandong.” Crucially, she did not say the best Cabernet vintage. She said the best vintage, meaning the season cooperated with her style, with the estate, with the grapes she had bet on. Cabernet Franc reached a ripeness she had been waiting for. Marselan tannins came in with a fineness she could control.
Her view on style was already articulated then: “It will be Chinese, Nine Peaks’ Chinese style. The goal is to express the maximum potential of this land’s grapes through different techniques, always in pursuit of refinement and elegance.”
That word elegance is rare in Shandong-estate marketing material. The default is richness, power, full body. Cosentino chose differently, and the wines reflect it. After she left, the technical team has held this line.
Cabernet Franc as Centerpiece
Section titled “Cabernet Franc as Centerpiece”Few Chinese estates put Cabernet Franc front and centre. Penglai’s wet summers and clay-rich soil typically produce green-leaf and bell-pepper notes in Cabernet Franc, hard pyrazines that need ripening to soften. Most estates blend Cabernet Franc in at 5–15% to add aromatic lift, then move on.
Nine Peaks took a different angle. By selecting cooler granite-dominated plots, capping yields below 5 tons/ha, and using gentle, late picking, they push Cabernet Franc past the green stage into a rounder, blackcurrant-and-graphite profile. The estate produces a 100% Cabernet Franc varietal, the Nine Peaks Single Vineyard Cabernet Franc, in small volume.
The result is unusual for China: a Cabernet Franc that has more in common with Saint-Émilion’s right-bank Cabernet Franc–dominant wines (Cheval Blanc, Ausone) than with Loire reds. Black fruit, dark spice, fine tannins, real length.
I have tasted it twice. The 2017 was promising but unsettled; the 2019 was conclusively good. James Suckling 95 for the 2019. Decanter recognition in 2021.
Marselan as Workhorse
Section titled “Marselan as Workhorse”Marselan was planted at Nine Peaks early, around 2010. By 2018, the vines were ten years old and giving consistent fruit.
The estate uses Marselan two ways: as a varietal (the Nine Peaks Marselan), and as a 25–35% component in the flagship blend. Cosentino developed gentle-extraction protocol at Nine Peaks before she took it to Long Dai. Stainless-steel small-vessel fermentation, gentle pumping over, no aggressive pump-overs that would strip color and bring up coarse tannin.
The Marselan profile here is bright black-cherry, violet, light pepper, finishing with a polished tannic frame. ABV around 13.5%, lower than what Marselan typically delivers in hotter regions like Hebei or Xinjiang.
Marselan’s adaptability across Chinese regions is one of the most interesting stories in Chinese wine. The flowering across Hebei, Shandong, Ningxia, Xinjiang shows the same grape producing very different but recognizable expressions. Nine Peaks’ version is the one that sits closest to a Mediterranean-coast style.
Tasting Notes
Section titled “Tasting Notes”Nine Peaks Reserve Cabernet Franc 2019. Deep ruby. Blackcurrant, graphite, dark plum, a curl of cedar. Fine, ripe tannins. Medium-plus body. Acidity that runs the full length. A long finish with a savory close. James Suckling 95.
Nine Peaks Reserve Marselan 2018. Garnet ruby. Black cherry, violet, white pepper, sweet vanilla from oak. Tannins fine but firm, with carrying acidity. The signature is its restraint at 13.5% ABV; most Chinese Marselans pass 14%.
Nine Peaks Chardonnay 2020. Pale straw, with a green tint. Pear, lemon, a quiet flint. Mostly stainless-steel, with a portion in French oak. Crisp, lean, food-friendly. Not built for cellaring.
Nine Peaks Cabernet Sauvignon 2018. The least distinctive wine in the range. Competent. Blackcurrant, cedar, herbs, well-managed tannin. The kind of wine where you understand why the estate spent its energy on Cabernet Franc and Marselan instead.
Why Nine Peaks Matters
Section titled “Why Nine Peaks Matters”Nine Peaks is one of the few Chinese estates that has answered, in actions rather than statements, what its house style is.
Long Dai’s answer is Bordeaux structure with Marselan integration. Domaine Franco-Chinois’s answer is light, drinkable, ready to please. Silver Heights’ answer is terroir-led, mineral, age-worthy. Nine Peaks’ answer is Cabernet Franc and Marselan, refined and restrained.
Many Chinese estates do not have an answer to this question yet. They produce competently across multiple grapes without a center of gravity. Nine Peaks chose, committed, and proved.
The next test is whether the estate can hold this identity over the next decade. Cosentino is gone. The new technical team will need to maintain the discipline. Marketing budgets push back toward Cabernet Sauvignon, because that grape sells. But the wines made by this estate so far suggest the answer to that question is yes.