NEWS
CHINA'S PIGEON HILL DENIED REPORT THAT IT SUPPLIED WINES TO MAKE CHINESE PENFOLDS
By Tony Zhu
6-6-2022
Source: Pigeon Hill (Xige) Winery
Pigeon Hill (Xige) Winery in China’s Ningxia wine region denied that it is the source of the wine used in the Made-in-China Penfolds to be launched by Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) in the China market.
In a statement released to Chinese media last Friday, owner of Pigeon Hill Winery, Zhang Yanzhi, categorically denied a report titled "Pigeon Hill, Home to Penfolds Made-in-China Wine" published by German wine media Meininger's Wine Business International (Meininger) on last Thursday.
Zhang said in the statement that the report is untrue, and said Pigeon Hill does not have any co-operation with TWE in producing Penfolds China wine.
“I and the winery hereby solemnly declare that the report is untrue. Pigeon Hill has never had any capital co-operation and business negotiation with TWE, and has never accepted any form of interview with Meininger,” Zhang said in the statement.
Reports said the wine association of Qingtongxia area, where vineyards of Pigeon Hill are cultivated, has actively sought bottling co-operation with TWE.
Source: Pigeon Hill (Xige) Winery
He said this might have caused foreign media to speculate that Pigeon Hilll, which is not a member of the Qingtongxia Wine Association, is involved in the project.
Zhang said while he appreciates TWE’s agility in its strategy of making a Chinese Penfolds, he cannot subscribe to the mass production connotation implied by the project.
“Wine is not a standard product that can be industrially produced such as cola, and there is no successful precedent for an international fine wine to be sourced and bottled from overseas,” he said.
Instead of supplying wines to international brands, Zhang said Chinese producers should aim at making quality wines and creating world famous wine brands.
“I take creating a Chinese wine brand that sells all over the world as my own mission, and hope will achieve this in my lifetime,” Zhang said in the statement.
Pigeon Hill Winery is one of the biggest wineries in the Ningxia region, with more than 2,000 hectares of vines and potential capacity of 10 million bottles a year.
TWE announced earlier that a Penfolds label sourced from the Ningxia region will be released in the China market in the second half of this year, as a strategy to circumvent the punitive tariffs imposed on Australian wines by the Chinese authorities.
The company did not name the wine supplier, but only said the wine is mainly made from Cabernet Sauvignon grown in the Ningxia region and will carry a price tag of RMB140 to 235 (USD21 to 35.4).
(the writer can be contacted at: info@thewinechronicle.com)
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