Moet Hennessy, the wine and spirits arm of LVMH luxury group, said Thursday it was planting its first vineyard in China to produce a premium sparkling wine.

The 66-hectare (163-acre) vineyard will be planted as a joint venture with the publicly-owned agricultural development firm of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region in northwestern China.

The maker of Moet and Chandon champagne will build and own a facility near the vineyard to produce the high-end sparkling wine, which is to be sold locally under the Chandon label, LVMH said.

Roberto Cavalli said it will open 85 new stores in China within the next five years under a deal signed on Tuesday with Shanghai-based retail giant UCCAL Group.

The company will open its first stores under the new deal in Beijing and Shanghai between late 2011 and early 2012, it said in a statement.

The venture will be called Roberto Cavalli China and will be owned 75 percent by the Roberto Cavalli Group and 25 percent by UCCAL.

One of Rolls Royce boss Torsten Muller-Otvos’ most memorable auto show moments came last year in Beijing when a man walked through the crowd to the carmaker’s stand and set down a suitcase.

“Millions of renminbi,” the man said of the suitcase’s contents. “Really, that was amazing. He bought a Phantom,” Muller-Otvos said.

The Rolls Royce chief executive told AFP no cash buyers had come forward yet at the ongoing Shanghai auto show, but the exhibition has provided further proof for luxury carmakers that their future is in China.

A rise in the spending power of China‘s younger consumers is apparently not helping them when it comes to picking up a little style at the same time.

Mainland Chinese media have this week picked up on a report released by the Hong Kong Institute of Fashion Buying and given it a interesting spin, saying that while more and more younger Chinese are now able to spend lavishly on luxury goods, they have been unable to pick up the one thing money can’t buy — good taste.

That report showed that the age group for consumers of luxury goods and high-end fashion in China was between 20 and 50 years old — and compared that to the age group of 40 and 60 years old found for the same habits in Japan.

After four thrilling days of exclusive parties, glamourous entertainment and intense networking, the Hainan Rendez-Vous 2011 ended last Monday leaving no doubt about its status as the region’s leading yacht show.

The superyacht show, which also incorporates a business jet exhibit and displays of luxury properties and high-end brands, once again drew crowds of China’s most affluent individuals to Sanya city in the ‘Chinese Riviera’ of Hainan Island.

This year’s edition had twice as many exhibitors as last year’s Hainan Rendez-Vous, and generated several billion RMB worth of transactions.

To celebrate the opening of its Beijing flagship store, Burberry staged its biggest runway show to date on April 13, at the Beijing Television Center.

The fashion-meets-technology extravaganza featured Brit rockers Keane who had never before performed in the country, stunning lifelike holograms, and an impressive turnout of celebrities and top models on and off the runway.