中國的波爾多 釀酒商們將沙漠變成葡萄園

“This” says Emma Gao as she races through the sun-scorched countryside of north-west China in a dusty Nissan Livina “is la Route des Chateaux.”

艾瑪.高開着她那輛滿是塵土的日產驪威，奔馳在中國西北被陽光暴曬的鄉間時說：“這是一條酒莊之路。”

“There are almost 40 different entrepreneurs – maybe more. Every day it is changing” the Chinese winemaker explains slaloming between French English and Mandarin as she tours her 70-hectare (170-acre) vineyard at the heart of a region government officials are calling China’s Bordeaux.

“大概有40家不同的酒莊----也可能有更多。這個數字每天都在變化。”這個中國葡萄酒釀酒師一邊自如地用流利的法語、英語和漢語解釋，一邊穿行在她位於被政府官員稱爲“中國的波爾多”的區域的中心地帶中70公頃（170英畝）的葡萄園裏。

Gao a 40-year-old who trained at Bordeaux University’s oenology institute was one of the first vintners to set up shop in this arid corner of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region more than 600 miles west of Beijing. Armed with a 300000 yuan (￡32000) loan from her parents she founded Silver Heights her award-winning boutique winery almost a decade ago.

四十歲的高女士曾經在波爾多大學的酒類研究所進修，她是北京以西600多英里的寧夏回族自治區這個乾旱角落裏最早開店的第一批釀酒商。大概十年前，她從父母那裏借了30萬元（3.2萬英鎊），創立了她的獲獎精品酒莊“銀色高地”。

In 2012 she opened a vineyard on the stony eastern slopes of the Helan mountain wagering that its parched land could produce world-beating wines. “There was nothing” Gao recalls weaving through newly planted lots of cabernet sauvignon chardonnay marcelan and petit verdot.

2012年，她在賀蘭山東麓的亂石間建了她的葡萄園，豪賭這塊焦乾的土地將出產世界第一流的葡萄酒。“當時什麼都沒有，”高的記憶在新種植的大批赤霞珠、霞多麗、馬思蘭和小維多間穿梭。

Four years on and a scramble for land is under way here as Chinese and international wine giants and super-rich would-be vintners follow Gao’s lead ploughing fortunes into Ningxia wineries.

四年裏，國內和國際的葡萄酒巨頭以及有意投資葡萄酒莊的超級富豪們，追隨着高的葡萄種植掘金腳步，進入寧夏的葡萄酒製造行列，在這裏開展了土地爭奪戰。