Leopard's Leap CEO Hein Koegelenberg has announced a historic deal with a Chinese company to export wine to China.

The deal, with Yangzhou Perfect Co., will dramatically increase the export of South African wine to China, one of the fastest growing wine markets in the world.

The partnership with Yangzhou Perfect, a division of Perfect (China) Co., will see nearly 2.9 million bottles of wine shipped to China by June 2012. This represents a massive addition to the nearly 3.9 million bottles of South African wine shipped to China in 2010/2011.

The joint venture will be called Perfect Wines of South Africa and will be 51 percent owned by Yangzhou Perfect and 49 percent owned by Leopard’s Leap Wines. The joint venture will own the L'Huguenot wine brand as well as act as a distributor for other wine brands including Leopard’s Leap, La Motte and De Klerk Presidential Blend.

Three years ago Hein and his team identified Asia as an export destination for our wines. The growth in annual exports of South African wine from 1.2m to 4.5m litres in three years supported their decision to look east.

The jointly owned L'Huguenot wine brand is named after the French Huguenots who fled to South Africa in the 17th century and settled in what is now Franschhoek.

The South African wine will be distributed via the 5,000 outlets of Perfect (China).