Gault & Millau | Lenz Maria Moser on viticulture in the desert climate

Changyu is the largest wine-growing company in China, which is divided into eight châteaux. One of them produces exclusively brandy. The huge company produces around 100 million bottles of wine and 50 million bottles of spirits annually. How is it that the Austrian Lenz Maria Moser has become one of the company's leading figures and that one of the eight châteaux is even named after him, the Château Changyu Moser XV ?

You have to go back a little bit, because Changyu's connection to Austria is over 100 years old . The winery was founded in 1892, and the oenological advisor at the time was Maximilian Freiherr von Babo, son of the head of the Klosterneuburg wine-growing school. He brought know-how, hardware and over 100 grape varieties to China. A monument to him was later erected with the Château Changyu Baron Balboa. The fact that Babo became Balboa has nothing to do with Sylvester Stallone's Rocky films, but rather with the challenging translations from European script into Chinese characters and back again.

The history of the Austrian winemaking family Moser is proven to be 15 generations old. The Roman numerals of Château Changyu Moser XV also refer to this. We wanted to find out in an interview how Lenz Maria Moser came to have the honor of having her own wine castle.