Penfolds and Hermes’ Saint-Louis: partners by design

It’s a long way from the Barossa Valley to Saint-Louis lès-Bitche. The little town four and a half hours’ drive north-east of Paris is barely a blip on the map of France. Blink, and you’ll miss it. You have to zoom in on Google Maps for it to even feature, in faint text, close to the German border. Saint-Louis lès-Bitche (or Münzthal) covers an area of just 4.5 square kilometres and has a population of about 500. So why on earth has Australia’s best-known luxury wine brand, Penfolds, turned up here? And, it’s not the only quality brand in town. French fashion house Hermès arrived on the scene in 1989.