If Penfolds’ flagship Grange were made with grapes sourced from the Napa Valley would it still be regarded in the same revered light? That’s not quite the question Treasury Wine Estates is posing to wine connoisseurs but the decision to source Penfolds-branded products from outside Australia for the first time is a bold and potentially risky one.

In reality it is unlikely there will be a Grange-branded, Napa-sourced product (Treasury has yet to decide the labelling of the Napa-produced wines) and, while it is a bold move to try to take a regional brand and turn it into a truly global brand with multi-sourcing of fruit and wine-making, the strategy probably isn’t as risky as it might appear at first glance.

Treasury Wine Estates chief executive Michael Clarke. Credit:Jesse Marlow

The obvious downside would lie in stretching the brand too far from its heritage, if that heritage is a key to its consumer appeal.

One assumes Treasury has tested the consumer perceptions that have supported the brand’s success and concluded that, purely as a brand, Penfolds is strong enough to be successful even if distanced from its origins.

The foundations for the strategy, which will see Penfolds wines made in Treasury’s Californian wineries from Californian grapes, lie in the international success of the brand, most particularly within Asia.