Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates, best known as the owner of Penfolds, will introduce its first China-sourced premium wine to the global market in August as the company faces mainland tariffs and a global cost-of-living crisis that’s crimping demand, reports Bloomberg. The first made-in-China wine in the Melbourne-based producer’s 2023 Penfolds Collection will be available in limited quantities worldwide at A$150 ($102) per bottle, the company said. The blend, likely to be met by skepticism over quality from oenophiles, combines cabernet sauvignon and marselan sourced from northwestern Ningxia and Shangri-la, in southwestern Yunnan.
The company has been exploring winemaking regions across China for years, Penfolds managing director Tom King said in an interview.
“Over the years, I think we have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the quality potential,” he said. “The one question I got asked regardless of where I was around in the world in the last year is, ‘when we will be able to try your first collection of Chinese wine?’”