Leading wine company Treasury Wine Estates today announced the launch of a new range, Penfolds Special Bottlings, led by two offers initially. The first product to launch is Lot. 1990 – a pot distilled single batch brandy exclusively available at selected global travel retail outlets, following its launch at Penfolds Cellar Door in South Australia. The second product scheduled for release in September 2018 is Lot. 518 – spirited wine with baijiu.
The company noted the legacy of founders Mary and Christopher Penfold, who developed not only table wines but also brandies, sherries and port styled fortified wines. Each product in Penfolds Special Bottlings is labelled ‘Lot’ to denote the experimental nature of the range. The inclusion of numbers is a link to the use of non-sequential and asymmetric numbering on Penfolds Bin wines.
“Brandy and spirits connect us to our past and our fortified winemaking tradition. With this brandy we hope to have blown away the cobwebs of preconception and create a brandy like no other. A liquid that delivers vibrancy and freshness to the palate,” said Penfolds Global Fortified and Spirit Winemaker James Godfrey. Placed in oak in 1990, the Brandy in Lot. 1990 has been maturing, developing and evolving in barrels, some of which were also used to mature offerings like Penfolds Grandfather Rare Tawny and Penfolds Chardonnay.
“This collaboration with travel retail partners to launch the Lot. 1990 at key airports is an ideal platform to solidify the brand equity for Penfolds Special Bottlings, and allows us to showcase our new cross-category products in the global travel retail channel.”
About Lot. 518, Godfrey said: “We have always added a distinctive spirit to give a unique house character to our fortified wines, so it seemed natural to revisit the past with a twist – and reinvent a wine for today. This experimental hybrid embraces baijiu – a clear Chinese spirit distilled from fermented grain – which may not seem like the most obvious fortification partner for our Australian Shiraz, but that’s the point.”
Treasury Wine Estates General Manager of Global Travel Retail Barry Galloway said: “We are delighted to launch Penfolds Special Bottlings Lot. 1990 with our partners exclusively into travel retail and look forward to sharing the Special Bottlings story, along with Penfolds history of innovation and experimentation with travellers in airports around the world. We are excited about this new range and remain focused on increasing conversion and spend by offering compelling consumer propositions unique to travellers to grow the category.”
Penfolds Global Brand Director Dougal McGeorge added: “Penfolds is one of the most recognised luxury wine brands in the global travel retail space and is highly sought after by globally mobile luxury travellers. This collaboration with travel retail partners to launch the Lot. 1990 at key airports is an ideal platform to solidify the brand equity for Penfolds Special Bottlings, and allows us to showcase our new cross-category products in the global travel retail channel, as we continue to build awareness and draw new consumers into Penfolds.”
Lot. 1990 is now available at select global travel retail outlets at a RRP of A$425.
