A Chinese buyer for Penfold’s: From April Fool’s joke to reality?

The speed of change in China is sometimes hard to fathom even if you live here. Three years ago, the April Fool’s joke on this blog was that a Chinese winery planned to acquire Australia’s Penfold’s, with faux spokesman A.P. Fu describing the two as a great fit.

Fu said longer-term plans include exporting Australian grapes to China for blending with Chinese juice. “We plan to have labels that show the close cooperation between our two peace-loving nations,” said Fu, who added that one idea is a label showing a panda and a koala hugging.

This week a Bloomberg report reported the possibility of a Chinese buyer — Bright Foods — taking over Treasury Wine Estates, which includes Penfold’s, Lindemans, and other labels. In 2011, such a move is all-too-believable. It might sound cliche to say “how times change” but it seems appropriate here.

Maybe last year’s April Fool’s joke isn’t so far-fetched…