‘The industry is experiencing one of its most challenging periods since the early 1990s,’ Johnny Goedhuis, founder of Goedhuis Waddesdon, tells Spear’s when asked about the state of the market in 2026.
According to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), global wine consumption fell 2.7 per cent in 2025, a continuation of a multi-year trend. The organisation attributes the decline to consumers’ evolving lifestyle preferences as well as wider factors such as geopolitical turmoil, trade disruptions and inflationary pressure. Concerns about oversupply – OIV notes the amount of wine produced globally has exceeded consumption for the past decade – paired with climate events affecting grapes and the growing season, means the industry is entering a period of recalibration.
The market has also been affected by significant press coverage of fraudulent operators targeting wealthy and inexperienced buyers: the founders of Imperial Wine & Spirits Merchants, for example, were sentenced to jail time last year after defrauding investors of more than £6 million through a scheme involving fake vintage Bordeaux wines.
‘The wine industry is unregulated, and that has led to a high number of scams,’ notes Charles Lea of Lea & Sandeman.
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It’s clear that now, more than ever, finding a reputable adviser is key.
The individuals in Spear’s 2026 Wine Advisers Index are deeply engaged in the fine wine market, and provide strategic and commercial advice on wine collecting, curation and cellar management for a UHNW client base. This expertise extends well beyond identifying prestigious labels; understanding what gives a bottle its value – its variety, history and rarity – is equally important.
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In doing so, they provide clients with the confidence that their investment is the right fit for them.
Some specialise in arranging exclusive tastings, and can set up meetings with off-the-beaten-path producers and offer guidance on which vintages best complement a portfolio. Others can connect enthusiasts with sustainable, natural and biodynamic wineries, or facilitate en primeur sales.
[See also: Prince Robert of Luxembourg on writing, wine and family]
Amayès Aouli of Bonhams inherited his passion for French wines from his parents and entered the fine wine auction industry after founding a successful wine-tasting club with a friend in Paris. Meanwhile, Nick Martin of Wine Owners combined his enthusiasm for collecting rare wines with his experience in data to develop technological solutions for wine collectors and producers.
Most would describe themselves as lifelong oenophiles, and several, including Simon Larkin of Atlas Fine Wines, have undertaken the rigorous three-year programme of blind tastings and assessments required to become a Master of Wine (MW).
Douglas Blyde’s work spans journalism, consultancy and collaborating directly with producers to host tastings. He describes himself as ‘a connector’ of people, places and ideas, with a network spanning winemakers, sommeliers, designers, distillers, bartenders and buyers. He brings together the stories and individuals that might otherwise have ‘remained uncorked’.
‘I always try to emphasise the connection between the person behind the bottle and the people who are going to discover that person, bottle and liquid,’ he explains.
Trends in 2026
A market in flux
Bordeaux’s fine wine market entered 2026 in what World of Fine Wine described as ‘the grips of a crisis’. Rising inflation rates, coupled with overproduction, has created a challenging macroeconomic environment, leaving ‘bottles stacked in warehouses rather than in cellars’.
The Liv-ex fine wine 100 index, a benchmark that tracks the market value of investment-grade fine wines, recorded a 2.5 per cent decline in 2025, reflecting softer demand for investment-grade wines and leaving many existing investors with negative returns over the year.
Meanwhile, Knight Frank’s 2026 Luxury Investment Index found that an increasing emphasis on quality and value is reshaping global demand, with buyers looking beyond the traditional strongholds of Bordeaux and Burgundy in search of better opportunities.
Record breakers
Despite the challenging conditions across the wider fine wine market, exceptional bottles continue to command extraordinary prices, demonstrating that rarity and provenance remain highly prized by collectors.
While many advisers on our list emphasise that clients often buy from a place of passion, a significant number of purchasers enter the market with a specific objective. These include investors expanding their portfolios, restaurateurs sourcing bottles for carefully curated wine lists, and collectors pursuing the world’s rarest and most valuable wines.
In March 2026, a bottle of 1945 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti sold for $812,500 at an auction hosted by New York-based firm Acker, setting a new record for the most expensive bottle of wine ever sold. With only around 600 bottles produced, its rarity, provenance and historic significance made it one of the most sought-after wines in the world.
Click the links below to jump to a section of this article:
- Methodology
- The best wine advisers: some names to know
- The best wine advisers: the complete list
- Contact us
Methodology
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to The Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
The best wine advisers: some names to know
Johnny Goedhuis
- Focus: Prestigious portfolios
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Goedhuis Waddesdon
‘One of our biggest drivers at the moment is to try and educate and encourage the young, who are so vital for the future of the industry,’ says Johnny Goedhuis, chairman of Goedhuis Waddesdon and one of the most respected figures in the fine wine trade.
A specialist in Burgundy, Goedhuis has spent decades building relationships with some of the region’s leading growers, helping establish the business as a trusted source for collectors and investors. Under his leadership, Goedhuis & Co merged with Waddesdon in 2023, bringing together two influential names in fine wine and expanding the firm’s portfolio of prestigious producers, including wines represented by Waddesdon, a Rothschild Foundation subsidiary.
Read Johnny Goedhuis’s full profile on Spears500.com
Simon Larkin
- Focus: Fine wine collections
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Atlas Fine Wines
Simon Larkin, Master of Wine, spent 14 years advising HNWs on their fine wine collections before establishing Atlas Fine Wines in 2010.
The firm provides private clients who are seeking expert advice on collecting wines with deep market knowledge and an international network. ‘Part of our niche is always being available on the telephone and happy to meet with clients. Whatever requirement the client has, we’re happy to satisfy it,’ Larkin tells Spear’s. Such requirements include recommendations of wine for pleasure and analysing market trends for the investment-driven buyers.
Read Simon Larkin’s full profile on Spears500.com
Amayès Aouli
- Focus: Fine wine auctions
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Bonhams
Amayès Aouli is the global head of wine and spirits at Bonhams, leading an international team of experts across the auction house’s locations in the Americas, Asia and Europe.
After a decade in investment banking at J.P. Morgan, during which he spent evenings and weekends hosting tastings and studying wine, Aouli was hired in 2020 to launch Sotheby’s continental European wine department. There, he oversaw a record-breaking charity wine auction, which raised $32 million.
In his role at Bonhams, Aouli has been key in building client relationships through high-end experiential events, including a private tasting at the Miami Grand Prix and a bespoke dinner at Paris’s Grand Palais. He tells Spear’s that he wants to create ‘excitement’ and bring more ‘attention’ to the world of fine wine.
Read Amayès Aouli’s full profile on Spears500.com
Charles Lea
- Focus: Small producers
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Lea & Sandeman
Lea & Sandeman (L&S) co-founder Charles Lea puts the fine wine firm’s success – it holds a royal warrant – down to consistency. ‘I was looking back at our first flyer when we opened the shop, and all the things we said then are really all of the things that we still stand for today,’ he says.
A full-service merchant devoted to quality, L&S has launched a private client division for those looking to buy en primeur, and it continues to increase its stock of wines from Italy, New Zealand, California and Patagonia.
The firm always buys directly from producers, and many of the relationships stretch back to when it first opened its doors. ‘We aim to be the route to market for a lot of quite small producers,’ Lea says.
Read Charles Lea’s full profile on Spears500.com
The best wine advisers: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles of each adviser on The Spear’s 500 website. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically by surname.
Contact us
- To apply for inclusion in The Spear’s 500, complete our submission form.
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- If you have missed calendar deadlines for our research cycles in 2026, you can still register your interest for updates about upcoming research and rankings.
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With additional reporting from Caitlin Kilpatrick.
