The traditional method produces finer bubbles, giving the company a unique market position that helps attract customers from Mexico, Singapore and Japan.

"Traditionally made wines from China are still rare in international markets," Zhai adds. "We're also in talks with customers from Thailand, the United Kingdom and the United States."

Decanter, a highly regarded wine magazine, highlighted the winery's potential in its May edition, noting: "From the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain in China's Ningxia, new producer DEVO's first vintage releases hints at the sun-drenched region's potential to make sophisticated sparkling wines."

Another winery benefiting from the Helan Mountain area is Kanaan Winery. While DEVO is just beginning to make its mark internationally, Kanaan has been exporting its still wines for years.

In December 2021, over 10,000 bottles from Kanaan were sold to Liberty Wines, a wine dealer in the UK, making the deal one of Ningxia's largest wine export orders that year.

"Liberty Wines has continued to reorder from us, which speaks volumes about their approval of our wines," says Wang Zhaoyue, assistant to the general manager of the winery.

Since June 2016, its wines have been exported to Germany, the UK, Switzerland, Austria, Singapore and Australia. The winery has exported over 9,000 bottles of wine this year with an export value exceeding 690,000 yuan.

"Our wines match the taste preferences of foreign consumers, offering balanced flavors and high cost-effectiveness, making them ideal for everyday drinking," Wang says. "Our wines also exhibit good age-ability."

"Our goal is to achieve 40 percent exports or even a split between domestic and international markets," says Zhai about the winery's long-range targets.