Duckhorn, Dean and Deluca, and Sakura

I'm currently in Kyoto for spring break where it's cherry blossom season. Every year, tens of thousands of tourists visit various parts of Japan hoping to catch these beautiful trees in bloom. This is tricky though - no one knows exactly when they open, and they flower for a fleeting few weeks. Kyoto is one of the particularly popular spots to view them because of the beautiful temples and shrines, gardens, and the general charm and tradition that permeates the geisha district, ryokans, and overall atmosphere.

Given the sense of culture here, I was surprised to find a Dean and Deluca around the corner from our airbnb, and was even more surprised when I found a wine shelf stacked with a few bottles... two of which were from Duckhorn (for ~$40-50 each). In a country where even Starbucks creates local SKUs (yuzu citrus tea, hojicha lattes, and even a special "short" size that's smaller than the average "tall" cup in the USA), I wondered why Dean and Deluca had chosen to maintain more familiar SKUs, and why it had picked Duckhorn in particular. 

I wondered briefly if the label made a difference - if Dean and Deluca had picked it because the label was especially recognisable with its signature duck, making it easy for customers to recall if they had seen it on their travels and wanted to purchase it locally. However, other labels in the store were pretty run of the mill - average typefaces and names that you'd probably have to pay attention to to retain - suggesting that this may not really have been their strategy.

Instead, I wonder if this wasn't driven by Dean and Deluca, but was in fact driven by Duckhorn, i.e. that Duckhorn, with its PE owners and strategy team had identified good US brands/on premise outlets to partner with as they expand internationally, as a way to brand-build outside the US in a low-cost way.

What do you think?