A fifth-generation family member of the Louis Vuitton dynasty has launched a wine in Hong Kong developed specifically to cater to the Asian palate.
- Wines Xavier Louis Vuitton
Winemaker Xavier-Louis Vuitton’s XLV, an exclusive private label, was developed with the Asian drinker in mind, a palate that favors fruit-driven notes and softer tannins in red wines, reports industry publication The Drinks Business.
While XLV has no connection with the Louis Vuitton brand or LVMH, the family connection and name recognition is sure to sway consumers in brand-obsessed Hong Kong, notes the story.
Vuitton owns a wine estate near the village of Apt in southern France, which he manages with his son Quentin-Louis who acts as cellar master.
Only the Ventoux wine is made from Vuitton’s estate grapes, while others are made with grapes from the Bordeaux, Rhone, and Champagne regions.
The XLV brand is available through Hong Kong-based online retailer yeswine.com, with prices ranging from HK $360 (€36) for the XLV Ventoux 2010, to HK $2,450 for the XLV Pauillac 2007 or €242.
While Xavier-Louis may be developing a wine made with French grapes for Chinese drinkers, another brand within the LVMH family Moet Hennessy has set its sights on China as a wine-producing nation in its own right, snapping up estates in Shangri-La county in Yunnan Province.
Similarly, Chateau Lafite Rothschild has also begun work on a vineyard in the Penglai region of China’s eastern Shandong province to cater to the country’s growing thirst for premium luxury wines.
China is the fifth largest wine market by volume in the world, having recently knocked Britain into sixth place.
I am a little perplex by this situation. On one hand you cannot stop someone to call their wines their name, but on the other hand you can be sure that a great deal of these wines will be purchased on the basis of the name recognition, and more important on the brand association and confusion with a legitimate product from the LVMH group. This could get messy!
Source: Luxuo.com
Source Photo: www.xlvwine.com
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