Interesting stats cited here
Getting killed on the beer side also. October hit and the bottom fell out hard.
From the article…
“Interestingly though, we’re not seeing the same pattern impact the super-premium consumer and our outlook going into the holidays is positive.”
"The top echelon of the wine world is doing well, but just not as well as it could be.
“We project we will close the year at +8% year-over-year,” says Jesús Martínez Bujanda Mora, CEO and owner of Valdemar, which has wineries in Walla Walla, Wash., and La Rioja, Spain, and sells bottles for between $40 to $85. “We were expecting to grow more but the economic situation has slowed us significantly. Interestingly, club growth and retention has been better than expected.”
“The fine wine auction market is not impervious to larger economic forces — markets, unemployment, wealth disparity…Still, it is largely insulated from the worst of it. Wine is off by about 10 to 15% from the high, but not 25 to 35% like other markets. We are still at near-record highs. The market seems to be strong in terms of sell-through in the estimate range.”
So, the LVMH crowd is OK.