The ground is dusty, but on either side the rows of vines are lush.

"These are Merlot grapes, the ones we're harvesting today," says Emma Gao. "We'll pick the Cabernets in another two weeks. They need more sun to get sweeter."

Gao is a wine pioneer in this dry corner of China about 900 kilometres west of Beijing and 1,200 metres above sea level. Separated from the Gobi Desert by just a thin row of mountains, Ningxia is an autonomous region that used to focus on coal mining, not winemaking.

It is now being touted as "China's Bordeaux" — Asia's version of the famous wine region in France.

That's where Gao learned her craft. Seventeen years ago, when there was scarcely a grapevine sticking out of the ground here, Gao's father sent her to Bordeaux University. She came back with a French accent and a love of winemaking, ready to produce "vin rouge à la Chine."

"We start with zero, oui?" she says. "The soil is different, the climate is different. In China, we have to learn our own secrets to viticulture."

Her father and business partner says his friends all told him he was crazy to invest his savings in Silver Heights, their family vineyard. "They said the conditions here are so bad, you'll die trying. But we proved them wrong," says 72 year-old Lin Gao.

In fact, the area is experiencing a gold rush now, with other winemakers, big and small, buying up land all around Gao's 70 hectares. Her vineyard produces about 60,000 bottles a year. That includes a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon that are currently China's top-rated wines, having recently received a score of 91 points out of 100 from international judges — considered in the "exceptional" range.

This comes at a time when wine consumption in China is growing dramatically, up more than seven-fold since Gao started her winery in 2007, to about 450 million cases a year. Accurate statistics are hard to find, but some industry research suggests China may soon be the largest single market for red wine in the world.

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