France's Moët Hennessy to make red wine in China
Moët Hennessy, the wine and spirits arm of the French luxury group LVMH, will start producing a high-quality red wine in China in four to five years. The wine will be made in an area sometimes known as Shangri-La because it features in James Hilton’s book Lost Horizon.
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The project, on a 30-hectare plot of land at 2,400 metres altitude, will be a joint venture between LVMH and Chinese vintner VATS and will be known as Moët Hennessy Shangri-La (Deqin) Winery.
It will "allow us to offer a high-quality red wine to Chinese consumers in four to five years," a statement quoted Moët Hennessy president Christophe Navarre as saying.
In may 2011 LVMH announced that it would make a sparkling wine in north-western China and has made a well-known white wine in Sichuan for the last five years.
It also already owns the Wenjun spirits brand.
China is a growing market for wine and French wine and spirits exports to Asia soared in 2011.
A small but growing quantity of high-quality wine is now produced there, mainly in the north.
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