I have heard that somewhere in Yunnan, people grow a red wine grape that is a direct descendent from the grapes that the French colonists brought over. Does anyone have any information about this?

You can find these grapes around the catholic church of Cizhongcun near Deqin on the upper Lancangjiang river.
The priest of the church will offer you some of this wine if you go there. The wine however we got was horrible. The original grapes used there are of the Muscat variety. A type that will not go well with a more modern taste. On top of this their wine making skills are not that good (A lot of wine is stored in plastic Jerrycans). (Yunnan Red has the same grapes and they are used in all kind of cheap Yunnan wines from the Mile area so you can find out how Muscat grapes taste) Lately Muscat is being replaced with Chardonnay in the area. Nowadays Chardonnay is grown in more vineyards in the north of Yunnan and used for Shangri-La wine.

There is a lot of these grapes used to produced several varieties of Yunnan Hong, but I can't remember which brands.

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I study this topic extensively as part of my PhD in anthropology and have spent significant time in Northwest Yunnan where the grapes are grown. The original Rose Honey strain introduced by the French can indeed be found in Cizhong at the Church and in the homes of a few villagers who grow it, specifically the owner of the Rose Honey Guest house who grows only Rose Honey. All of the other grapes grown in the region and in most Cizhong homes are a Cabernet (not chardonnay) as Liuer mentioned that have been introduced by the government for sales to the Shangri-La Red Wine company and others. You can read more about this in my interview with GoKunming here: www.gokunming.com/[...]

The grapes found in one of the church yards at Cizhong are indeed the actual original vines planted by the French missionaries, though they are kept in a locked walled off area for which only the township government holds the key.

My mistake.
Indeed Cabernet is used for the red wines. They grow now as well Chardonnay up north for white wines.

PS.
Don't mix up Shangri-La and Yunnan-Red. Shangri-La uses cold area grapes like Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay and are thus up north and high. They produce quite drinkable reds and whites. Yunnan-Red uses grapes for the hotter lower area around Mile.

For sure there is a difference between Yunnan Red and Shangri-La Red, but the French grapes the OP was asking about are almost indeed certainly those grown in Northwest Yunnan in Cizhong in the same general area where Shangri-La Red Wine grapes are grown. I may be mistaken, but I have also never seen any white wine grapes (i.e. Chardonnay) grown anywhere in Deqin up north. The wine company itself is indeed called the Shangri-La Red Wine company, so I'm still not sure what whites you are referencing. I have yet to observe a single village throughout Deqin that grows green grapes for whites.

The OP is indeed looking for the grapes of Cizhong. These grapes are not used for large scale wine production but used for local products. (And only red wine).

Large scale commercial production is done with different grapes.

The company is called the Shangri-La winery Co.,Ltd.
Their website is www.shangeri-la.com
You will find white wines there as well.
They have a large shop on Qianweixilu between Rixinzhonglu and Hehonglu in the south of Kunming. You will find all their wines there.

Thanks so much to everyone! I am writing an article on this, and you have been very helpful. I will travel there and see what I can do!

Liuer, so I'm curious where the Shangri-la Winery gets their grapes from? mmkunmingteacher, if you're planning a visit, harvest in Deqin is around September, we have bought grapes there the last two years for home wine-making. We haven't made wine from other grapes, but our first year turned out well, better than the Yunnan Dry Red, and I hope this year's (to be bottled in another month or two) will turn out well.

I haven't seen the green grapes grown, but have been hearing more about them and have tasted some. I get the impression they've more recently started growing them here.