In December, Treasury Wine Estates, an Australian wine company that is one of the world’s largest, said it had a problem on its hands: excess wine valued at about $150 million sitting in distributor warehouses in China. Blame the Chinese Communist Party’s campaign against festive drinking. A tough economy and leader Xi Jinping’s crackdown on what Beijing deems unbecoming behavior by government officials have caused the bottom to fall out of what was once among the most lucrative wine markets in the world. That is forcing vineyard owners from Bordeaux to Australia to rip up vines and leave grapes to…
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