This article is part of our Founder Series, a collection of articles written by Lost Plate’s founder Ruixi Hu. These articles share stories about her journey building Lost Plate to what it is today, and the memories that she has collected over the years.
This is a story about how a yak herder, a French grape, and how a forgotten village gave rise to one of the world’s rarest wines. We begin high in the mountains of Yunnan, one of China’s Western-most provinces, where the Mekong River slices through Tibetan foothills and Catholic church spires rise from the center of timeless villages.
There we meet Hongxing, a small boy herding yaks for his family in the remote village of Cizhong. With no formal education, his days were spent on steep hillsides, tending livestock and dreaming about what lies beyond the nearby mountain ridges. He had never heard of fermentation, tannins, or terroir – let alone imagined that one day, people from across the globe would come to taste a wine he would create
In the 1980s, an elderly woman from Tibet’s Salt Well Church arrived at Hongxing’s doorstep. She came with a quiet but determined purpose: to find grapes and revive a sacred ritual nearly lost to time—making wine for Sunday Mass, a tradition introduced to this region decades earlier by French missionaries (and still practiced by locals).
Hongxing’s father, then president of the local catholic association, welcomed her into their home. Together, the three of them crushed grapes and added sugar – “too much sugar,” as Hongxing still recalls with a laugh. The resulting wine was rudimentary and overly sweet, but the moment sparked something that never left him.
Years later, Hongxing found work as a hiking guide, leading travelers over the snow-capped summits he once dreamed about, dotted with century-old cathedrals. On one of these treks, he crossed paths with a French traveler on a unique quest: to rediscover Rose Honey, a nearly extinct grape varietal thought to be lost forever.
Back in the 19th century, French missionaries had brought Rose Honey vines to Cizhong (Hongxing’s village). When disease decimated the vineyards of Europe, wiping out entire varietals, this remote village in Yunnan quietly preserved what France could not.
The French traveler (also an experienced winemaker) tasted Hongxing’s homemade wine and recognized its potential. He returned the next year—not as a tourist, but as a mentor—and taught Hongxing the techniques of professional winemaking: fermentation control, aging, blending. A new kind of vintage was born—one that tasted of France but belonged to Tibet.
Today, Hongxing runs a small, family-owned winery called Cizhou, named after Cizhong’s ancient name. His wines are still made entirely from Rose Honey grapes—delicate, floral, and utterly unique. They are the only ones of their kind left in the world.
“Every bottle holds our land’s story,” Hongxing says. And indeed, it does. The story of missionaries and mountains. Of a boy with no education who turned a clumsy experiment into a world-class wine.
Rose Honey is more than a grape. It’s a living relic, a survivor of extinction, and a bridge across cultures and centuries. Hongxing’s wine preserves more than flavor; it safeguards a fragile heritage – between French monks and Tibetan farmers, between forgotten history and today’s glass.
And despite his success, Hongxing remains deeply grounded. “I learned everything from the mountains,” he says. His wines may be refined, but they are anything but polished—they are wild, honest, and resilient, just like Cizhong itself.
To truly understand this story, you have to taste it. Step into the story of Rose Honey wine with our Go Beyond Shangrila for Wine & Tibetan Culture of Yunnan. This isn’t just a wine tasting—it’s a voyage into a living legend. Over eight unforgettable days, you’ll sip Rose Honey wine beneath stained-glass windows, listen about the ancient trails that carried barrels of wine and buckets of salt, and meet Hongxing himself in the village he still calls home.
This is more than a tour—it’s a pilgrimage through time, taste, and tradition. Join us, and drink history by the glass.
In the bustling alleys of Xi’an’s Muslim Quarter, where street food and local delicacies narrate the city’s rich history and culture, one small restaurant stands out for its unique flavors and unwavering commitment to tradition. Zhiliang Steamed Dumplings is not just a beloved staple for locals; it’s become a must-try stop for travelers seeking the authentic taste of Xi’an.
When I close my eyes and think of Chengdu, it’s not skyscrapers or pandas I see first – it’s a smell: chili oil, caramelized sugar, and the comforting aroma of yeast drifting up from sizzling griddles filled with golden half-moons of dough. These are dan hong gao (蛋烘糕), translated directly as egg baked pancakes, and to me they’re my entire childhood wrapped up in a delicious package.
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