How Penfolds is venturing beyond winemaking to become a global luxury icon

“They're starting trends and they are driving the rest of the market. And what we found from that research was that wine was at the top of the alcohol [category] they are looking to consume, and it gave us insight into the focus on relevance with a younger audience, and bringing them something they can connect to emotionally is critical,” she noted.

That said, Keyte does caution against being “too prescriptive” when it comes to segmenting Luxuriants as a consumer group by age band.

“It’s more about attitudes and lifestyle, but we do absolutely tend to find that the new Luxuriants skew younger, and the connoisseurs skews older – but you can have a new Luxuriant that's in their 50s, and you can have a connoisseur that's in their 20s,” she clarified.

From the Highsnobiety study, the brand also discovered that these Luxuriants increasingly value quality over quantity, believing this shift to be a by-product brought about by COVID-19. Luxuriants also love a brand with heritage.

“It's about being culturally relevant today, so we’re talking about being a ‘renewed original’, in a sense, as a brand,” said Keyte.

To woo these new Luxuriants, the 178-year-old brand had therefore flirted with the NFT (non-fungible token) craze, with three drops to date in collaboration with BlockBar, the world's first direct to consumer NFT platform for luxury wines and spirits.

Its latest and third NFT drop was in April 2022, in which Penfolds’ rare 2018 Superblend Imperial Duo was released as two NFTs on BlockBar, with the two 6-litre bottles auctioned off together with a starting bid of approximately US$25,000 (S$33,351) that eventually sold for US$28,000.

Given the recent shift in appetite for NFTs, however, the brand is currently re-working its strategy around these releases. 

“We've learned a lot through [our involvement with] NFTs, and it’s a big part of what we’re thinking about how we might operate in the metaverse, which is just mind-blowing and we’re really excited about it,” offered Keyte.

Oh, the metaverse?

Surely the new Luxuriants will be all over – and inside – it in a heartbeat.