Aged wuliang

One of the intentionally aged teas, Pu-Erh has a loyal following.


Feb 23rd, '13, 12:36
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Aged wuliang

by JakubT » Feb 23rd, '13, 12:36

Do you know of any at least slightly aged (not in Kunming) wuliang tea? I mean like 2001 or earlier. I'd like to see where Wuliang teas shift via aging, but I haven't yet found any such tea. Thanks!

Feb 23rd, '13, 13:30
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Re: Aged wuliang

by shah82 » Feb 23rd, '13, 13:30

Wuliang did not use to make puerh from their tea, so it's mostly represented by Xiaguan and Nanjian factory tea that bought from Wuliang areas ad hoc.

You can also look for FoChaJu, it seems that there could be one of the older ones floating around by them.

By and large, the only remotely easily available northern lancang tea with age and humidity, is by far JingGu. Qianjiazhai and Bangwei would be runners up.

I do not think Wuliang teas sold as Wuliang (not Jinggu from Wuliang) are anything like good agers. They will behave pretty much like older Jiangchen from my impression, but a bit better.

Feb 23rd, '13, 16:51
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Aged wuliang

by Exempt » Feb 23rd, '13, 16:51

shah82 wrote: I do not think Wuliang teas sold as Wuliang (not Jinggu from Wuliang) are anything like good agers. They will behave pretty much like older Jiangchen from my impression, but a bit better.
Do you mean that puerh sold as Wu Liang from pre 2001 were not good at aging or current Wu Liang is not good for aging?

Feb 23rd, '13, 18:40
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Re: Aged wuliang

by shah82 » Feb 23rd, '13, 18:40

Okay...to be specific, my impression and experience leads me to conclude that the only teas worth getting from Lancang county for aging pretty much have to be very expensive boutique leaves. I've had two Jingmais out of five or six Jingmai older than four years old that have aged reasonably successfully. In both cases, the leaves, before and after soaking, looks very premium. JingGu isn't typically that interesting unless you pay through the nose for the good ones--but I've only had one reasonably aged Jinggu--which is sold as '02 Yiwu Old Tree, and that tea is not really tasty. The rest are premium leaf from '07 and '09. I've not really read about people being happy with aged Bangwei aside from Lancang Ancient Tea Factory Bangwei Chawang from '06 in chinese forums. Most other comments are mild, floral, etc...

If one really wants to try aged Wuliang not from Kunming, I suppose the easiest to get would be Changtai Jinzhushan line from '03 or before. Beyond that, look for Nanjian, as I've said. Also older tea from Qianjiazhai. JakubT has already had aged Bangwei.

Feb 23rd, '13, 23:01
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Re: Aged wuliang

by fdrx » Feb 23rd, '13, 23:01

Some wuliangs i've tried seem to age quickly (trad. processed? over processed?) Maybe they aren't good candidates for 20 or 30 years storage like others shengs, but i like them as they are. (if i may, i don't buy a gigondas bottle to keep it 20 years neither)

Kunlus seem to develop incense aromas like some bingdaos, at least first stage kunlus.

This cheap little 07 kunlu brick looks over processed but i'm not sure of that after trying more recent years :
Image

Here are a few links. it's not as aged as you wanted but maybe you can find interesting things:
Tulin/nanjian
Kunlu
cheap samples


Shah, jingmai and bangwei should be considered as wuliangs?? Qianjiazhai is not ailao??

Feb 24th, '13, 00:05
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Re: Aged wuliang

by shah82 » Feb 24th, '13, 00:05

No, just considering Lancang district as a whole. Easier that way, because of the way regions bleed into one another. A couple of JingGu are way the heck sure on Ai Lao Mountain on the eastern edges of JingGu county. I do get confused with Qianjiazhai since I think that's in Zhenyuan county, and still some people sez that's a JingGu. Not sure, as with Osanzhai.

Mengla county doesn't really have overlapping mountains. Longpa (the only Youle that matters, it seems) is well away from the eastern most Menghai tea which would be Pasha, I think. Or Gelenghe. There are no really worthwhile Yiwus up at the lancang border, nor Yibang et al. The only overlapping border is GFZ and Laos. Menghai county is pretty much the same way. Only one tiny spot to its north, well defined spots to the west, and one overlapping area to the south where Damenglong is, with Burma.

Lancang has its issues, but there just aren't huge plantations of high quality teas there, so it's not too much of a confusion. Jingmai, Bangwei, Kunlu, Xiao JingGu + Yangta, and Qianjiazhai. Beyond that, Jingmai is the only place with *large* ancient plantations. Everywhere else is tiny.

Lincang is crazy, and is dominated by the fact that there are *two* DaXueShan. One of them is a ridge that goes from Yongde to Fengqing, and it's material *where* on that DaXueShan we're talking about. However, very few places in Lincang have distinct villages labeled on that bing wrapper, and if you find one of those old price lists from 2007 or so, you'll find that there are a number of villages where price per leaf is pretty expensive, but you've never heard of any of them. Bingdao/Xigui, functionally, is a scam and and an idea rather than any concrete idea of tea, unless we think of it as a premium region, like describing Yiwu teas. This all makes it very hard to narrow in on what Lincang teas you really like.

Feb 24th, '13, 01:36
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Re: Aged wuliang

by JakubT » Feb 24th, '13, 01:36

Thanks shah! My impression is that the region is not a great ager too, but I've heard several people (vendors or affected-by-vendors) saying how well Wuliangs will age and I wondered if they can know that at all, or if it is just marketing babble.

The Bangwei I had was not bad, though it was probably not worth some difficult pursuing.

Indeed, Fuchaju could have some, I'll check that out. I'm now in midst of drinking their 2008 which I like a lot (at least given it's Wuliang; I also remember their 2006 version, but I guess they should have something before that.

Feb 24th, '13, 16:53
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Re: Aged wuliang

by fdrx » Feb 24th, '13, 16:53

that there are *two* DaXueShan
even probably three: yongde, bangma and linxiang
There are no really worthwhile Yiwus up at the lancang border, nor Yibang
What you mean by lancang here? i'm a bit lost

Feb 24th, '13, 18:58
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Re: Aged wuliang

by shah82 » Feb 24th, '13, 18:58

Jiangchen is a county in the district north of Yiwu producing areas of Banna.

Lincang district borders Lancang. Cangyuan, Shuangjiang Mengku, , Bangdong (or Lincang City), and Yun county borders the eastern end. Lancang(officially Pu'er district, I think, or Simao, official names changes) has JingGu and Lancang county (yeah, I see where the confusion might be, Simao and Lancang tends to be used interchangeably, or I was confused and used them interchangeably), and those two counties provide almost all of the good stuff. Nin'ger County has a ton of old wild trees, supposedly protected. The stuff marketed as Ai Lao Wuliang tends to be from Zhenyuan and Jingdong counties. However, the parts of the mountains that are in JingGu county, especially the Xiao JingGu villages, are labeled as Jing Gu teas.

Bangma is in an area described as Snowy Mountains, but for all practical points, it's not the big ones. It's basically an outlying Mengku tea orbiting Bingdao.

The ridge DaXueShan goes from western Genma county in LIncang, up to Yongde county, and ends more or less in Fengqing county. The traditional premium DaXueShan is made in Fengqing county, because that's where the super old trees are. Yongde has some wild trees, but more pedestrian 100 year old or so trees for the most part on its part of DaXueShan. The other DaXueShan is mostly in Bangdong county and S. Mengku county, and is a single peak, more or less. However, I have not heard of premium tea from that area, it's all to the east, bordering the Lancang river.

Feb 24th, '13, 20:36
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Joined: Sep 2nd, '10, 12:57

Re: Aged wuliang

by fdrx » Feb 24th, '13, 20:36

I know where all these counties are, but if you were saying lancang for simao prefecture, i understand a bit more what you wanted to say.

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