US: Pacific Wine Partners ahead of targets

The US wine joint venture between Constellation Brands and BRL Hardy Pacific Wine Partners is ahead of budget after figures, released last week showed that the $US225m company registered profits of $US1.2m in the three months to the end of February.   The strong performace has continued into this quarter as well, BRL Hardy's international trading director David Woods reported, with the Banrock Station and Blackstone brands being particularly strong. Blackstone, the US brand was expected to sell "north of 750,000" cases this calendar year after reaching 600,000 cases last year.  Banrock Station, meanwhile, should go through the 500,000 case mark in the U. Last year it registered sales of 300,000 cases.