Modern Chinese winemaking, less than three decades old, has entered an awkward but promising adolescence. Several ambitious wineries are now using Western technology to create dry wines from vinifera grapes, including Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. A few are even preparing to export some bottles to America.

But wineries still face growing pains. Most buy their grapes from local farmers whose viticultural practices are questionable. And the surface of China's terroir has only been scratched—only a few of the potential growing regions in this vast nation, with dozens of different climates, have been explored.

A recent (non-blind) tasting of a dozen Chinese wines in the New York office of Wine Spectator testified to China's progress, and to the obstacles that remain. The country's best wineries are making acceptable Western-style wines. But there is a wide gap between these wines and the style that is currently popular in China's domestic market.

Our tasting made it clear that China does have the potential to create fine wines based on the European model, using classic vinifera grapes. A 1997 Cabernet from the state-owned Changyu winery, one of China's largest wine producers, showed a deep garnet color, attractive aromas of black cherry, cigar box and mushroom and flavors of cherry, vanilla and spice. It delivered varietal character and was well-balanced and quite fresh. Reviewed non-blind, it rated 84 points on Wine Spectator's 100-point scale.

Four wines from Grace Vineyard also showed varietal character in a Western style. A Chardonnay 2002 and a Cabernet-Merlot 2001 were the standouts. The Chardonnay showed simple apple and vanilla flavors, while the red blend offered light cherry flavor, with tobacco and earth notes. Both wines scored 81 points. While Chinese law allows wineries to blend significant percentages of imported bulk wine and still call the wine "Chinese," Grace uses only estate-grown fruit, so its success is proof of China's potential.

But the more traditional wines, which are more in tune with what most Chinese wine drinkers are looking for, had little in common with Western bottlings. Both reds and whites were achingly sweet, tended to be high in alcohol (16 percent in Changyu's Chefoo Red China NV) and resembled vermouth or Sherry, with flavors of raisins, toasted nuts, orange peel and hard candy.

It's not unusual for an emerging region to make differing wine styles for its domestic and export markets; this was the case in Argentina and Chile, for example, up until the mid-'90s. But the differences between the two styles in those South American countries were small and have largely disappeared. In China, the stylistic gap is huge, and it remains to be seen whether Chinese tastes will change.

In any event, Chinese winemakers have plenty of territory to explore. China stretches across 3.7 million square miles, making it roughly the same size as the United States. Only 10 percent of the land is arable, however; much of the country is filled with the empty expanse of the Gobi Desert, the towering peaks and valleys of the Tibetan Plateau and the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. The most fecund portion of the country, the southeast, is too fertile for wine grapes, with subtropical weather that allows farmers to harvest two or three crops of rice in one growing season. Some small wineries are attempting to grow grapes at higher altitudes there.

Most of the wineries are located in the east, within a few hundred miles of Beijing. Dynasty Winery is headquartered in Tianjin, just 50 miles outside the capital. Several wineries are south of Beijing, on the North China Plain. Huadong is in Qingdao, and Changyu is in nearby Yantai, both on the Shandong peninsula. Vines there are planted on rocky hillsides and get some breezes from the nearby Yellow Sea. Summers are extremely humid, and moist monsoon winds and occasional typhoons are hazards. Other wineries are located to the northeast of Beijing, in Liaoning province. The climate there is more continental, with cold winters.

A few wineries are exploring different climates. Grace Vineyard is located on a plateau in the Taihang Shan mountains, near the upper Yellow River valley. Farther upriver, importer Montrose Food & Wine owns the Treasure of Xi Xia winery in Ningxia province, bordering Inner Mongolia. Almost 1,500 miles west of Beijing, on the far side of the Gobi Desert, Suntime and Lou Lan wineries are growing grapes in a far more arid climate, in the shadow of the Tian Shan mountain range.