Despite Plunging Stock Market, Premium Wine Sales Are Up

Despite the turbulent stock market, one thing that has remained stable is baby boomers’ love for premium wine.

Sales of bottles of wine priced at $100 or more were up 34.2% in value and 36.1% in volume in the second quarter of 2022. In contrast, sales of wine at $30 or less were down 9.4% in volume and 8% in value.

“Affluent consumers drive demand for super-premium brands and may be more recession-resistant under some circumstances, but a look at the results during the global financial crisis suggests that even these consumers are not recession-proof,” Rabobank’s global strategist for beverages Stephen Rannekleiv told The Drinks Business.

Stock market down, premium wine is up

Inflation, recession, potential nuclear crisis, and other scary global factors have sent the stock market into a tailspin. As a result, the S&P 500 was down 17.02%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 13.29%, year-to-date, as of August.

Usually, businesses think poor economic factors lead to less consumer spending. But in the world of premium wines, spending is going up.

“When the stock market goes up, rare wine tends to rise more, and when stock goes down, rare wine may go down a little, but not nearly as dramatically,” David Parker, the founder of the rare wine buyer and seller Benchmark Wine Group, told Wine Searcher.

According to the 2022 Q2 DTC Report from Enolytics and Wine Direct, luxury wines priced $90 and up enjoyed a 32% bump in sales, while bottles priced $20 and lower were down 1%.

Read more on Dimensional Insights.