Phoenix Publishing and Media Inc's (PPM) Australian arm has launched its own brand of wines into the Australian and Chinese markets, and celebrated by holding a series of winetasting events in Nanjing and Wuxi recently.

"Phoenix Cloud Valley" is a wine brand owned by PPM Australia, with local winemakers’ help for its production, and boasts a range of 2015 vintage wines from Merlot and Shiraz to Cabernet Sauvignon.The bottles' labels were design by Australian illustrator John Jewell.

A collection of Phoenix Cloud Valley

Jack Jia, president of the company, compared winemaking to bookmaking. According to him, words to a book are as grapes are to a wine; the cover of a book is as a label is to a bottle; wine promotion is just like book distribution, and winetasting is just as similar to a book critique.

At the tasting activity in Nanjing, the organizer invited a professional sommelier teach guests winetasting etiquette. Limited edition postcards featuring images of Phoenix Cloud Valley branding and label design were also released during the activity.

At the Wuxi event, a local restaurateur was so impressed with the 2015 Merlot that he pledged to introduce it as his restaurant's own house wine.

PPM Australia's chairman Zhang Zaijian, said the company plans to produce more wine books and wine-related projects, as well as cooperating with publishing houses in education, publishing and cultural creative industries.