(TheWestAustralian) - The company behind Dom Perignon and Moet & Chandon has launched what it hopes will be the first world-class red wine to be produced in China.

The $340-a-bottle red is already seen as a new hope for China’s high-end wine makers, who are desperate to raise their profile overseas after a loss of business at home as a result of President Xi Jinping’s four-year war on corruption.

The premium wine comes from a rural backwater nestled about 2700m above the Mekong on the edge of the Tibetan plateau in the country’s south-west, thousands of miles from China’s traditional wine regions of Shandong and Ningxia.

A grape there has excited experts at Moet Hennessey, which is part of LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury group and owner of more than 70 brands including Louis Vuitton, jeweller Bulgari and the fashion label Fendi.

“As soon as I started to study the potential of the vineyards and wines, I knew that this wine would deserve an international audience,” Moet Hennessey’s Estates and Wines president Jean-Guillaume Prats told the South China Morning Post.

Moet Hennessey bosses also said they launched the new red — which has been seven years in the making — in response to rising interest from global wine connoisseurs for a top-end product from China, as well as expected demand in the domestic market.

The red blend is called Ao Yun, which translates to “roaming cloud” in Chinese. It has already been widely praised by respected wine experts including Elin McCoy and Jancis Robinson.

Four villages in Deqin, Yunnan province, were chosen for the new project after MH asked Australian wine scientist and former Cape Mentelle boss Tony Jordan to find the ideal spot for a quality red.

Ningxia, in China’s north, was considered too cold in the winter. Shandong, the country’s other major wine region in the north-east, was ruled out because of excessive rainfall.

A total of 24,000 bottles will initially be sold, but it is thought that figure could rise to 50,000 in the next five years.

China boasts the second-biggest clutch of vineyards in the world by surface area after Spain, with 799,000 hectares dedicated to growing grapes, according to the Paris-based International Organisation of Vine and Wine. But it is struggling to shed its image as being a mass producer of poor-quality products.