Treasury Wine Estates says earnings at its flagship Penfolds business next year will be far lower than first expected even as it spends more money expanding sales in China, where demand has rebounded.

Tim Ford, the chief executive of the country’s largest winemaker, said there were no plans to cut prices to boost sales, even as Treasury warned Penfolds’ earnings would grow in the “low to mid-double-digit” range. That compares to annual growth of “approximately 15 per cent” in the past.