A bottle of cider might just make the world a little bit better.
This is a collaborative project between people from Tianjin and Beijing. It is also the origin of their brand name: “Gingi” is a homophone for “Jingjin”, meaning ‘Beijing-Tianjin’. Their aim is to seek out unique wild and small apples in this ancient apple-growing region of China and craft a delicious natural cider.
The two founders, who are themselves importers of natural wines and avid fermentation enthusiasts, drew their initial inspiration from the 2018 Raw Wine exhibition. There, organiser Isabelle Legeron introduced natural wine enthusiasts to a brand-new style of cider: co-fermentation. Co-fermentation represents a movement for equality in the world of wine. Legeron believes that grapes are not the only fruit with the potential to ferment into complex wines capable of ageing. At the exhibition, they met Carl Schestrén, a Swedish cider producer who uses only discarded apples, pears, plums and other fruits from orchards, farms or gardens, employing natural winemaking techniques such as extended skin contact and bottle fermentation. This is precisely the style of cider that the Golden Tangerine Project aims to produce: blending local apples with various local fruits (plums, apricots, physalis, wild cherries, and medlars) and even vegetables for co-fermentation, using natural yeasts to unlock their potential and create a sensory adventure.
In keeping with the principle of ‘sustainability’, they also ferment the pomace left over from pressing grapes and apples to produce low-alcohol beverages. These pomaces are used to make Piquette and distilled into gin. All their brewing recipes and experiments will be published in due course on their WeChat official account and website, in the hope that breweries, restaurants, bars, or any other places where fruit waste occurs can use these methods to brew some bubbly cider.
Food waste is a major issue. But Kai and Hao from the Golden Orange Project are two optimists. Just as they believe in natural yeast, they also believe that a bottle of cider might just make the world a little bit better.
Wines on display
The Gingi Project Pinot Noir
Country: China
Region: Wuwei, Gansu
Vintage: 2025
Variety: Pinot Noir
Alcohol: 12% vol
Type: Red wine
Key Features: Located in the heart of the desert, this region enjoys abundant sunshine, significant day-night temperature variations and minimal pest and disease pressure, making it ideal for growing high-quality grapes. The wine is fermented using a blend of 50% destemmed and crushed grapes and 50% whole bunches. The grapes are pre-chilled in a cold store before being transferred to the fermentation tanks. Fermentation takes place at low temperatures; no cap punching is carried out during the first half of fermentation, whilst gentle extraction is applied during the middle and latter stages, resulting in exceptionally soft tannins and bright fruit aromas. Once fermentation is complete, the must is gently pressed whole-bunch in a basket press before being transferred to old oak barrels to complete the fermentation process.
The wine’s name is inspired by the soundtrack to Kill Bill, evoking images of a geisha’s grace paired with a paper umbrella and a blade. On the palate, however, it is juicy and smooth, like velvet within a scabbard—alluring, dangerous, and irresistible, inviting you to take one glass after another.
The Gingi Project Pinot Noir Rose
Country: China
Region: Wuwei, Gansu
Vintage: 2025
Variety: Pinot Noir
Alcohol: 12% vol
Type: Red wine
Key Features: A rosé wine crafted using the ‘reverse bleeding’ method. This technique involves placing a portion of uncrushed whole bunches of grapes into the fermentation tank, followed by the addition of freshly pressed Black and White grape juice. After the grape juice has fermented with natural yeasts, the remaining whole bunches undergo carbonic maceration, resulting in abundant fruit aromas and gentle extraction. Abundant aromas of red berries—strawberries, raspberries and cherries.
The wine’s name is inspired by the soundtrack to Kill Bill, whilst the label features a hidden knife and a paper umbrella. On the palate, it offers powdery floral notes and the sweetness of red fruits, finishing with the bitter freshness of citrus and the crispness of herbs, leaving a long, elegant finish.
The Gingi Project Urami Bushi
Country: China
Region: Penglai
Vintage: 2025
Varieties: 70% Shidai apple, 10% Braqueado grape, 10% Sears apple, 6% Corjas apple, 2% T18 apple, 2% Red Heart crabapple
Alcohol: 7.3% vol
Type: Hybrid
Key Features: Pioneering blend, co-fermented red-fleshed apples and grapes.
Shanxi red-fleshed apples + four Shandong red-fleshed apple varieties (naturally pink flesh) + Gansu Brachetto grapes. Vertical press oxidation, slow fermentation with natural yeasts, 50% whole-bunch fermentation. The Brachetto grape, native to the Piedmont region of Italy, has the appearance of a red grape but the ‘heart’ of a white grape. Brachetto is an aromatic variety, featuring fresh red berry notes and intense rose aromas; in Piedmont, it is commonly used to produce sparkling wines and sweet red wines. The 50% whole-bunch fermentation of the Brachetto further enhances the variety’s inherent aromas of raspberry and wild rose. As this year’s harvest yielded a limited quantity of fruit, it was not possible to bottle it as a single varietal; therefore, we blended it with red-fleshed apples. This blend has produced an intense scent of rouge.
The wine’s name is derived from the cult film ‘Shurō Yukihime’.
The Gingi Project To the Daisy
Country: China
Region: Penglai
Vintage: 2026
Varieties: 38% Guoguang apples, 25% Jiguan apples, 24% Muscat grapes, 13% Hongyu apples
Alcoholt: 8.5% vol
Type: Hybrid
Key Features: A blend of apples and grapes. The apples are from the 2024 vintage, sourced from orchards in the northern mountainous region of Pulandian, Jinzhou District, Dalian. The Guoguang, Jiguan and Hongyu varieties are heritage varieties popular in the last century, grown on trees aged between 70 and 80 years. The Muscat grapes were harvested on 6 September this year in Minqin County, Wuwei, Gansu. The vineyard is situated deep within the desert, enjoying abundant sunlight and minimal pest and disease issues. The daily temperature variation ranges from 10–15 degrees Celsius, which is ideal for white grapes to accumulate sugar whilst maintaining acidity. Both the apples and grapes were slowly pressed using a vertical press, allowing the juice to undergo thorough oxidation during the pressing process. Both the apple and grape components underwent spontaneous fermentation using natural yeasts. The cider component was fermented in old oak barrels and continued to mature in oak after fermentation. The wine component was fermented in egg-shaped clay jars. The two were blended after fermentation and continued to mature together.
The name of the wine is taken from the poem ‘To a Daisy’ by the great English poet William Wordsworth, a poem about purity. When a hint of Brettanomyces is present, we seem to perceive the pure floral notes of the Muscat grapes even more keenly. Brettanomyces is a unique facultative anaerobic yeast; in the traditional wine world, it is regarded as a defect due to the distinctive leathery and stable-like aromas it produces. However, it is also a crucial source of flavour in Old World ciders and wild-fermented beers. After a year of barrel ageing, our 2024 barrel-fermented cider has developed Brettanomyces notes reminiscent of English-style cider. When blended with the new vintage Muscat, it pleasantly reminds us of the ‘Daisy’ wine by Matassa, the renowned natural wine producer from the South of France.
The Waste Land Graf
Country: China
Region: Penglai
Vintage: 2024
Varieties: 60% 123 Cider, 40% Sahti-style wild yeast ale
Alcohol: 5.0% vol
Style: Hybrid
Highlights: A unique blend of cider and wild yeast ale. The apples used are “123” apples from Dongfeng Town, Liaoyuan County, Jilin Province, harvested in 2024. Also known as ‘Golden Red’, the 123 apple is a hybrid variety bred from Golden Delicious and Red Taiping apples. Small in size and highly cold-resistant, these apples have a tart and astringent flavour and were widely cultivated in Northeast China during the 1980s. The wild yeast ale component is derived from a 2023 vintage wild yeast ale brewed in the wild. The cider undergoes spontaneous fermentation using natural yeasts from the apple peel. The wild yeast ale component is fermented in white wine barrels using the natural yeast sediment from the cider, with no temperature control during fermentation. The cider and wild yeast ale are fermented separately and blended prior to bottling; the beer is unfiltered, unclarified and contains no added sulphites.
Graf is the name of a style created by blending cider and beer. The history of the Graf style is not particularly long. Its origin is even fictional. Graf comes from Stephen King’s 1991 science fiction novel The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands: “ ‘Graf is brewed by Aunt Talitha of Rivermouth; it is deep gold in colour, potent, and leaves a distinct sensation in the throat.’ Stephen King reimagined Eliot’s The Waste Land within the framework of a science fiction novel. We have named this beer ‘The Waste Land’ and blended naturally fermented cider with traditional Nordic farmhouse ale to pay homage to this imaginative source.
Rainy Day Ramen and the Cosmic Pachinko
Country: China
Region: Penglai
Vintage: 2025
Varieties: 98% pear, 1% pomelo, 1% kelp
Alcohol: 5.5% vol
Type: Hybrid
Highlights: The pears are sour pears from Yangjiayu Village, Tangshan. The kelp is native to Shandong. The pomelo is a green pomelo from Guangxi. We steeped a small amount of kelp and green pomelo peel in a base wine made from Anli pears, which is characterised by fresh fruit aromas and high acidity. The Shandong kelp contributes apricot-like stone fruit aromas and a moist umami flavour. The green pomelo peel brings intense citrus aromas and brightens the overall bouquet of the wine. Natural yeast from the fruit peel undergoes spontaneous fermentation; the kelp and green pomelo peel are added after primary fermentation has concluded. The wine ferments slowly throughout the winter. In spring, the lees are drawn off before bottling; the wine is unfiltered, unclarified and contains no added sulphur dioxide.
We have turned our attention to aquatic plants; like fruit, aquatic plants from different regions and varieties exhibit distinct flavour profiles. This wine was inspired by Japanese ramen broth. Many Japanese ramen shops add pears and apples to their stock to enhance the fruity aroma. We have incorporated kombu and green yuzu into the base of this pear wine. The name is taken from Gordon Vanstone’s novel of the same title. We have drawn upon the imagery of rainy days and ramen to describe this pear wine, which possesses a moist, fruity aroma and umami reminiscent of an orchard after the rain.
