David Tyney with his pinot noir and pinot gris and their copies. Photo by Anthony Phelps/Phelps Visuals, supplied.

Marlborough winery Cirro Wines has become the first New Zealand wine company to have illegal copies of its wine found in the Chinese market.

David Tyney, owner and chief winemaker at Cirro Wines, says the company’s Chinese representative was alerted to the fakes by the distributor of Penfolds, an Australian company targeted by scammers who copy their famous Grange wines.

Mr Tyney says the fake wine uses the same visual design as Cirro Wines, but has a different name and contains Spanish wine.

Cirro Wines is taking legal action against both the Chinese distributors of the fake and the Spanish providers. Cirro Wines has legal protection in the Chinese market.

The label design is significant, Mr Tyney says, as the labels are based on an artwork done by an artist friend using a charcoal brush, depicting the clouds above the company’s Marlborough vineyards.

He says while the copying of Cirro Wines’s wine is upsetting, it’s also an ironic sign of their success in the Chinese market.

“I’ve been working in China for ten years and we have a good history selling wine into China. Our Sauvignon Blanc is in the top three New Zealand wines sold in China, and clearly they have noticed…

“Because of our success, we’ve become the first Marlborough winery, the first New Zealand winery to be targeted with copies in China.”

Mr Tyney says the company has protections in place and is working to enhance these with tracking systems built into the labels of the company’s wines. The shared experience with copies that Cirro Wines and Penfolds have will see Cirro Wines learning from Penfolds’ work on combatting copies.

“While this is the first time we know of a New Zealand winery have been copied in the Chinese market, there have been copies and misleading products in European and other markets.

“Issues with copies, design breaches, or similar things happen in all markets around the world. Anyone exporting to any market around the world needs to make sure they have legal protections in place for their brand and other products,” he says.

New Zealand wines are doing well in the Chinese market with sales showing significant growth, compared to other countries. Mr Tyney says this is peak time for New Zealand wine sales in China, as the weather suits drinking chilled white wines, and young and new wine drinkers enjoy experimenting with Marlborough sauvignon blanc in particular.

Cirro Wines has made its mark in the Chinese market, thanks to good staff and a sustained long-term effort in-country, with Mr Tyney spending months at a time both promoting Cirro Wines and working in Chinese wineries, particularly in Ningxia China’s premium wine-growing region. He has played a significant role as an advisor to the industry there, consulting to vineyards and wineries.

Mr Tyney says his company is currently looking for a sister winery partner in Ningxia.

Ningxia’s wine industry is fairly recent, only about 15 years old, and it has drawn heavily on foreign consultants, such as Mr Tyney, to improve the quality of its wines. Ningxia wine is now winning awards around the world, and is set to be world-class, both in size and quality.

The Chinese district specialises in red wines, particularly Bordeaux styles.

Cirro Wines concentrates on Marlborough’s specialities: Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Gris.

Based in Marlborough, New Zealand’s premium winegrowing region, Cirro Wines was founded by David Tyney in 2009.

He started working in a wine cellar as a 13 year-old, and has progressed to having his own vineyard and small winery in a special part of Marlborough. He’s honed his craft over 30 years and embodies the old world with a deep connection to the terroir.