We reported a while ago on how the Chinese symbol for "8" can now be found on the country's 2008 Lafite wine bottles, as the vintage continues to push way ahead in terms of popularity in the People's Republic's markets.
And label printers aren't the only pieces of technology being used in the continuing campaign by French wines to dominate China's markets. Now radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags are being attached to bottles...
It may sounds more suited to Mission Impossible movie. Yet the RFID tags are the latest method with which Henning Thoresen's Bordeaux Winebank is expanding its dealings into Asia, particularly China and Taiwan.
The tags are part of an initiative that Thoresen, CEO for the company, has trademarked "Five Star Provenance". They register whether the bottles have been subjected to any extreme heat or cold during their storage and shipping - either of which could negatively affect the liquid in the bottle.
Bordeaux Winebank's most recent success saw collectors and alternative investors place big-money bids for the firm's 2000 Bordeaux bottles which auctioned at Sotheby's recent New York wine auction.
Successes included $72,600 for a bottle of Pétrus, which Thoresen attributes to "the power of provenance," as quoted by Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, RFID tags - along with the increasing internet bidding - could perhaps just be the tip of the iceberg as new technologies help aid the expansion and success of collectibles across the globe.
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