Young Collectors

Michael Karam tells us that younger and more demanding collectors are shaping the future of the fine wine market and how Octavian, the leading storage company, is wooing them

It was inevitable; the moment when wealth, knowledge, modern living and the market, converged to create a cohort of well-heeled millennials and Gen Zs who are restructuring the way fine wine is bought and collected.

At a time when another chunk of Millennials and Gen Z are abandoning alcohol completely, for those still keeping the faith, there is now an emphasis on quality for those moments when they do open a bottle.

According to the 2025 UK Wealth Report, wine is now the most sought-after ‘collectible’ with particular interest from a tranche of investors aged 21 to 43. They have eschewed traditional instruments such as stocks, bonds and precious metals and are moving into ‘alternative assets’ such as art, antiques, watches, cars and whisky.

Crucially, this shift in focus has coincided with older collectors liquidating (as it were) their cellars, creating an compelling confluence of supply and demand.

Many point to the pandemic, when the world went seriously online, as the genesis of this movement. Wine had more cachet than crypto currencies and buying En Primeur, like getting an allocation on a luxury watch release, was pure catnip to those who saw an asset that aligned with their values and lifestyles.

There were also more practical attractions. At a time when HMRC is putting on the squeeze wherever it can, fine wine, which is classified as a ‘wasting asset’, is exempt from capital gains tax. Boom!

Investors are now not only choosing wines from the outside the classic regions they are also looking at wines for earlier consumption (Why wait years to drink the stuff?) but also ethical practices. They wanted to be assured that producers were applying sustainability and transparency in production. Did the winery recycle? Did it use new energy sources? Did it monitor its carbon footprint, diversify packaging and use lighter bottles. Were the wines vegan? Were pesticides used? And so on.

The zeitgeist had been brewing for about 30 years, from the time when wine came into sharper focus on our collective radars. No longer the preserve of fusty men in bow ties who spoke rather pompously of first growths and cépages nobles. The advent of New World wines changed all that. The wineries want to tell us more, from their back story to the grapes, sorry cépages, to the winemaking and the terroir. Wine was no longer made or sold in isolation.

The internet was, again, the driver, helping push a burgeoning foodie culture, consumer tastings and wine tourism, into an evolving lifestyle culture. Weekend supplements poured out recommendations, recipes came with food pairings and wineries integrated F&B into their business models.

Octavian, the West Country company that for the past 30 years has set the standard for fine wine storage, which has already changed the wine storage landscape by applying modern processes to this most ancient of commodities, is now ready to help this younger collectors make the best decisions when it comes to storing their precious asset. “We’re very keen to woo this very exciting and dynamic demographic,” said Octavian MD Vincent O’Brien. “For the under 35s we offer the first year storage for free and then after that a discounted rate based on the level of movement/value.”

For further information contact our customer services team on +44 (0)1225 818 725 or care@octavian.co.uk.

Michael Karam is a journalist, editor and wine writer. He is the author of Wines of Lebanon and a contributor to Jancis Robinson’s Oxford Companion to Wine and The World Atlas of Wine