The world of luxury combines many things: products, attitudes, lifestyles, but in the most impactful and enticing cases, it unifies all three – with fine wine always finding a secure and paramount position within this trinity. Since ‘fine wine’ topped Knight Frank’s luxury investment index in 2021, the prominent position has only become harder to ignore in years which followed. Within this analysis, we at CB Wine have taken 3 industry case-studies to demonstrate not only how wine fits in with these industries, but how wine is essential to their perception as ‘luxury’.
AIRLINES, LOUNGES & HOTELS
Emirates Airlines is, by both reputation and data, the industry leader when it comes to luxury airlines; here, Ultra- and High-Net-Worth-Individuals (U/HNWIS) are not only treated to top-end lounges before flights, spacious 1st and Business class seats, an array of on-board amenities, priority boarding/disembarking, and greater access to fine hotels, but, along every step of the way, are treated to the highest tier of fine wine, which is deliberately introduced by Emirates to reinforce the luxury element. With a client base of just under 52 million a year, their fleet of planes has the highest amount of 1st and Business Class seats of any airline, at a staggering 2261, seconded only by British Airway’s less significant 700 seats. Their signature A380 plane holds an impressive 90 1st & Business Class seats at one time, allowing them to reach the industry record whereby 2.1% of all their seats being assigned anually to 1st Class alone.
Within Emirates $36bn+ a year revenue business, fine wine is not just a constituent element, but an integral one. Since 2006, when Emirates began their wine programme, they have invested over $1bn into making it a world-class display of luxuriance and wealth, developing key relationships and partnerships with champagne icons like Dom Pérignon (with whom they are the official airline partner), Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot, as well as fine wine leaders Vega Sicilia, Opus One, Penfolds, Chapoutier, Ornellaia, and d’Yquem. In addition, since 2018, they have begun a master-range of the top vintages from Bordeaux first-growths Château Mouton Rothschild, Château Margaux, Château Haut-Brion, and Cheval Blanc. This extensive luxury offering has culminated in a personal private cellar (the largest of any airline) operated out of Burgundy, France, and which is home to over 7 million individual bottles, featuring an array of specific vintages from each brand, all being carefully stored and monitored for released in their prime drinking window, giving the end consumer the highest representation of the wine, and therefore, the most opulent experience. As part of their acquisition and logistics, Emirates fully/partially-own and operate 8 wine-specific subsidiaries, according to their most recent annual report.
Another key element of a luxury experience is bespoke tailoring, helping to define the experience as a personally designed one. Emirates themselves don’t just have a stock wine list, they adjust it to every unique flight, depending on the destination’s trends, clientele preference, and, of course, the year in which each wine is most suitably aged and ready to drink. As such, they have a website where customers can look in advance and see what their flight will have on board.
How is all this managed? Emirates have a strong and dedicated wine team, led by Sir Tim Clarke, and which is personally overseen by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman & Chief Executive of the Emirates Group. But the knowledge and expertise does not end here: it is carefully passed down to the on-board staff of every flight, who, through a project called ‘The Academies’, are trained in ‘L’art du vin’ to maximise the experience for all the customers on the flight, guiding them through and serving from their boutique menus. This in turn drives the growth of Emirates within the luxury sector.
Singapore Airlines, having been voted by Best First Class Airline 2024, by Skytrax (the leading airline award group), and having won 5 times Best Airline, Best International Airline and Best Cabin Crew, also has a firm reputation with luxury, and, like Emirates, devotes a significant amount of time, money, and resources to garnering a significant wine programme, knowing full well how key it is to providing a high-end service to its customers, and the subsequent association with luxury. Cellars in the Sky, a wine-focused aviation organisation, have bestowed Singapore Airlines with multiple awards for their project, including Best Presented First Class Wine List, Best Business Class Cellar, Best Business Class Red Wine, and Best Presented Business Class List. This array of accomplishments comes from their wine team, led by Jeannie Cho Lee, the first ever Asian Master of Wine, as well as Oz Clarke, and Michael Hill Smith. They run their cellar from Singapore Wine Vault, a newly built state-of-the-art cellar in costing over $200m. Further testament to their importance of wine for their growth, is their annual wine budget of $30m, a third of which goes towards their on-board Champagne offering called ‘A Celebration of Champagne’, where passengers are treated to 5 rare and fine champagnes from key partnerships they have secured with the likes of Louis Roederer Cristal (of which they are the only airline to do serve it), Taittinger, Heidsieck, and, most notably Krug, which has been called The Rolls Royce of Champagne, only further solidifying wine as an investment luxury product with likes of high-end cars, watches, and fashion; and these adjacent industries find themselves equally aligned with, and intrinsically supported by, fine wine.
HIGH-END CARS
Whilst alcoholic beverages and vehicles is perhaps an unlikely association, there is in actuality an immense correlation. It will be almost intuitive to attendees of Car Shows like Concours of Elegance (who feature Charles Heidsieck as their champagne sponsor), or the London Wine Fair receiving official sponsorship from Victor, Private Jet Charter, that these two industries engage quite significantly.
Take the celebratory champagne showers of Formula 1, a practically unnecessary, but culturally essential display of luxury and wealth, where podium placers spray fellow athletes with a bottle of their newest sponsor, Ferrari Trento, taking the place of Moët & Chandon. Once again, seeing this clear and unavoidable correlation between fine wine not only adds symbolism to the event, but actually drives consumer demand for these drinks, and thereafter prices. According to Robb Report, since securing the partnership for podiums and hospitality in 2021, Ferrari Trento’s export sales have more than doubled, and even tripled within the U.S. market. In 2023, Porsche Cars GB, who host the annual Carrera Cup and Sprint Challenge, has officially partnered with Hattingley Valley Wines, a Hampshire-based sustainable winery, who also experienced a noticeable increase in sales for 2023.
Even within the cars themselves, top end Rolls Royces, Range Rovers, and Mercedes-Maybachs commonly feature refrigeration, glass storage, and glass holders designed for champagne; why? simply because fine wine is the defining factor for luxury, and any top-end car would be negated by its absence. At the pinnacle of luxury sport cars, Bugatti have partnered with Mullin Wine Estates to create the exclusive Mullin Wine Club, which is only available to members of the Bugatti Owners Club, using selected rare and large format wines from Mullin. On the Italian Side, Maserati collaborated with Antinori (producers of legendary super-tuscans Solaia & Tignanello) to create a one-of-a-kind Gran Cabrio Folgore ‘Tignanello’, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the iconic Super-Tuscan wine.
WATCHES & FASHION
Legendary Swiss watchmaker Girard-Perregaux teamed up in 2023 with the equally legendary Château Latour to create a limited edition 18 piece run of watches using the unique pebbles from Latour’s idiosyncratic Pauillac vineyard for the watchface. Vacheron Constantin, another horological icon, joined forces with the equally luxurious Louis Roederer to present a pairing of Swiss timepieces and French champagne over at the watch brand’s Bond Street boutique in London.
In the fashion world, Stella McCartney paired with fellow LVMH subsidiary Veuve Clicquot to create a series of handbags and shoes from cork waste. A more striking fashion example comes from Council of Fashion Designers of American finalist Jackson Wiederhoeft, who partnered with Napa Valley producer Silver Oak to put a dress on the runway which was stained by flagship their Cabernet Sauvignon, creating a unique pink hue to the dress – only fine wine could turn a spillage into a highly demanded and expensive fashion statement.
This alignment between fine wine and luxury lifestyle not only enhances the luxury element, but creates very real and significant demand for the wines themselves, as guests and consumers alike begin to see wine as an integral component in the broader ecosystem. The immersion U/HNWIS have in wine only increases demand and value for it, driving investment onward and upward. This is not, however, just a demand phenomenon, but an associative one too; as more and more people see brands like Vega Sicilia, Opus One, Ornellaia etc. associated with luxury in this way, they will follow similar patterns to brands like Dom Pérignon, who, already having a reputation of this calibre amongst the U/HNWIS population, have seen value increase.
Looking at the above graph, it is clear to see why investing in wines which have that luxury association to them are, simply put, great choices. The powerhouse of Dom Perignon as a wine label, combined with the near perfect growing season of 1990, exemplifies the lifecycle of a wine primed for investment attention, with more recent vintages primed to follow suit. Here at CB Wine we are constantly welcoming a host of these exceptional products through our doors, from the timeless allure of Latour and Pétrus, to the frenzied surge of cult brands like Pingus, Seña, Screaming Eagle, and more. Staying in touch with your portfolio manager will ensure you never miss the next opportunity to acquire these immensely desirable products.
