Up until now China has not been known for its wine. At Silver Heights vineyard in the country's Ningxia region, winemaker Emma Gao is attempting to change that perception. Where the area had previously focused on bulk wine production, her approach is on achieving world-class quality—and the fruits of her labours are winning over critics and wine drinkers at home and abroad.

With ambitions to make Ningxia China’s Napa Valley—the renowned Californian winemaking region that sparked scandal at the 1976 Judgment of Paris blind tasting by stealing first place from a French wine—Gao is championing the region as “a new world in the new world.”