Penfolds presents newest wines on Shanghai stage

For the first time in its 171-year history, Australia's prestigious wine producer Penfolds presented a complete annual wine collection outside Australia. The new global release, unveiled on Thursday in Shanghai, consists of five vintages across 20 appellations and provenances, led by the 2011 vintage of the flagship Grange.

"We have been exporting Penfolds to China for over 50 years," says Robert Foye, managing director with the Asia unit of Treasury Wine Estate, the Penfolds brand owner. "And we have had people in the country selling it for over 20 years. But we have never really fully sold and marketed Penfolds in China with 100 percent of our hearts and minds."

"Today marks the beginning of a new era for Penfolds in China, where we give our greatest attention to the largest red-wine market in the world with the largest middle-class population," he says.