Time, Terroir, and the Architecture of Luxury: The LVMH Lesson

LVMH’s Wines & Spirits Revival: Heritage as Strategic Anchor

When this week LVMH reported its third-quarter 2025 results, shares surged +12-13 % and the luxury sector rallied broadly. The group posted 1 % organic growth (≈ €18.3 b for Q3), modest but meaningful in a climate of uncertainty.

Among the divisions, Wines & Spirits managed to inch into growth (+1 %) for the quarter, after years of pressure. The increase is not dramatic, but symbolic it suggests that the long-dormant “liquid luxury” arm of LVMH may be stirring again, underpinned by strategic positioning rather than speculative momentum.

Major outlets, Financial Times, Forbes, Le Figaro, all seemed caught by surprise and shifted their narrative. After months of gloomy headlines forecasting the “end of the golden age,” the same commentators now speak of renewed confidence, rebounding demand, and resilient fundamentals.

Interesting how these fundamentals are always overlooked when numbers are down,  as if they had never existed, as if LVMH’s rise to glory had been a matter of chance. In reality, nothing truly happens by chance. In luxury, rebounds never happen overnight. They begin in silence, in those months or years when brands refine their fundamentals while the world looks elsewhere.

LVMH’s results remind us that resilience is built in these unseen stretches of time, through patient stewardship of heritage houses whose value cannot be scaled, only nurtured.

The Maison Philosophy — Craft, Continuity, and Global Reach

LVMH’s entire model rests on the Maison concept: heritage houses elevated through global reach yet steadfast in authenticity.  Each Maison,  whether couture, jewelry, or wine, operates under a simple conviction: true luxury lies in the union of place, craft, and patience.

In wine, that conviction takes tangible form. The group’s holdings span Champagne, Bordeaux, and Burgundy,  three regions where legacy itself is a currency. LVMH does not buy brands for volume; it acquires icons whose prestige compounds quietly over time. These Maisons are not quarterly performers, they are generational assets.

The Wines & Spirits division’s stabilization is therefore not coincidence but consequence: the natural result of a structure built on the slow-moving pillars of terroir, brand equity, and craftsmanship.

Champagne — The Elegance of Ruinart and the Icon of Dom Pérignon

No region captures the intersection of heritage and celebration better than Champagne. Within LVMH’s portfolio, Ruinart and Dom Pérignon form a dual axis: one representing grace and refinement, the other timeless prestige. Both are crafted to deliver consistency, recognizability, and reassurance across vintages.

Ruinart: Light, Art, and Sustainability

Founded in 1729 by Nicolas Ruinart, the house is recognized as the oldest Champagne Maison, the one that defined what Champagne could become. Beneath the city of Reims, its bottles rest in ancient chalk quarries,  the crayères , whose cool, stable climate ensures slow, perfect aging. Now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, these cellars are a metaphor for patience itself.

Ruinart’s wines have always been an ode to Chardonnay-driven finesse:  luminous, pure, understated. Each cuvée is a multi-vintage blend, crafted to express balance and continuity rather than spectacle. This approach gives Ruinart its instantly recognizable signature: refinement that is stable and reassuring, vintage after vintage.

Today, under LVMH, Ruinart continues to evolve without ever compromising its soul. The newly unveiled Pavillon Nicolas Ruinart, designed by architect Michel Rojkind, is a living dialogue between art, sustainability, and gastronomy, a space where contemporary creativity meets centuries of craft.

For LVMH, Ruinart embodies the perfect equilibrium between heritage and reinvention: a brand that whispers elegance instead of shouting luxury.

Dom Pérignon: The Art of Plénitude

If Ruinart is Champagne’s quiet poetry, Dom Pérignon is its symphony. Named after the Benedictine monk who shaped early Champagne methods, Dom Pérignon stands as an icon of vintage-only excellence. Since its first commercial release in 1936, the Maison has released wines only in years that meet its uncompromising standards.

Each Dom Pérignon vintage is a blend of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay sourced from Grand Cru vineyards, matured for years on lees before release. The wine’s evolution unfolds through Plénitudes — P1, P2, P3 — successive expressions of maturity revealed over decades.

• Plénitude 1 (P1) is released after about nine years of aging on lees, capturing the balance of youth and maturity.

• Plénitude 2 (P2) emerges after roughly 15 years, gaining intensity, depth, and layered complexity.

• Plénitude 3 (P3), released only from exceptional vintages after 25 to 30 years, reaches profound maturity, where concentration and silk-like texture meet timeless freshness.

Each Plénitude marks a dialogue between time and craft, proof that patience itself can be an art form. For LVMH, Dom Pérignon embodies the essence of luxury: mastery of time, and the discipline to release perfection only when it is ready.

Together, Ruinart and Dom Pérignon define LVMH’s Champagne vision: stability of style, mastery of blending, and the reassurance of identity. In a market obsessed with novelty, they remind us that refinement and consistency are their own forms of innovation.

Bordeaux — Cheval Blanc and d’Yquem: The Long Horizon

In Bordeaux, LVMH owns two of the region’s most emblematic names: Château Cheval Blanc and Château d’Yquem,  one devoted to harmony and innovation, the other to patience and transcendence. Each embodies the belief that time, when guided by mastery, becomes an ingredient as vital as soil or grape.

At Cheval Blanc, the art lies in harmony, Cabernet Franc and Merlot assembled in perfect proportion, a dialogue between structure and silk. The estate has long championed a forward-thinking approach: parcel-by-parcel vinification, precision viticulture, and a gravity-flow cellar designed by Christian de Portzamparc, a statement of both modernity and respect for tradition. It represents LVMH’s philosophy in physical form: innovation in service of continuity.

By contrast, Château d’Yquem is about surrendering to nature’s uncertainty and mastering its timing. Its magic begins with a fungus: Botrytis cinerea, known as “noble rot.” Under rare conditions of misty mornings and sunny afternoons, this micro-organism gently desiccates the grapes, concentrating sugars and aromas while maintaining acidity. The result is one of the world’s most complex sweet wines: luminous gold in youth, amber in age, and endlessly layered.

But noble rot is unpredictable. It never spreads evenly, nor at once. The harvest must unfold through multiple tries,  successive passes through the vineyard where pickers hand-select only the berries that have reached the perfect stage of botrytisation. It is an act of observation, instinct, and memory more than of technology.

At a tasting with Yquem’s winemaker Lorenzo Pasquini, I was struck by his description of this process. He called it “a conversation with time.” Because each grape evolves differently, pickers must read subtle cues in color, texture, and scent to decide when a berry is ready to be chosen. And that judgment, Pasquini explained, cannot be taught quickly; it is acquired over decades by watching and feeling, season after season.

This is why Yquem still relies heavily on its most experienced harvesters, men and women who have walked those same rows since childhood, who recognize the invisible signs that no algorithm could ever capture. Their knowledge is not written in manuals; it lives in gesture and instinct. In the vineyards of Yquem, heritage is literally human.

Each vintage of Yquem carries within it hundreds of micro-decisions, each grape a moment of choice, each barrel a mosaic of patience. It is, in the purest sense, craftsmanship elevated to spiritual discipline.

Cheval Blanc and d’Yquem express LVMH’s Bordeaux philosophy: that true luxury is built not on speed but on stewardship. Both estates demonstrate how commitment to heritage and precision transforms complexity into harmony, a process that, like the wines themselves, takes years to reach its perfect balance.

Burgundy — Clos des Lambrays: The Slow Rebirth of an Icon

If Bordeaux speaks of heritage and Champagne of celebration, Burgundy speaks of introspection, terroir distilled to its essence. LVMH’s acquisition of Clos des Lambrays in 2014 marked a decisive step: the group’s entry into the rarefied world of Côte de Nuits Grands Crus.

The estate’s history dates back to the 14th century, when it was first recorded as the “Cloux des Lambreys.” Today it encompasses 8.7 hectares of contiguous Grand Cru vines,  an anomaly in fragmented Burgundy. LVMH’s purchase was not opportunistic; it was philosophical. Clos des Lambrays offered something irreplaceable: a heritage site capable of producing wines that embody patience, precision, and longevity.

When Jacques Devauges took over as estate director in 2019, transformation accelerated. Devauges implemented organic practices, refined parcel selection, and pursued almost surgical precision in vinification. The results are already visible: vintages 2020–2023 have earned critical praise, often 96–98 points, with an estimated aging potential of 30–40 years.

Beyond scores, Clos des Lambrays has regained its voice, a wine of depth and restraint, the classic “iron fist in a velvet glove.” For LVMH, this is luxury’s true meaning: the capacity to improve with time, to evolve without haste, to reward fidelity over speculation.

Clos des Lambrays completes LVMH’s trilogy : Champagne for celebration, Bordeaux for prestige, Burgundy for purity, together composing a portrait of luxury built on endurance.

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Domaine des Lambrays, Clos des Lambrays Cru 2023 – Neal Martin 96-98 : Eleven different cuvées combine to form the 2023 Clos des Lambrays Grand Cru, with every square meter contributing to the blend, to quote Jacques Devauges verbatim (as an aside, this is the same philosophy at Cheval Blanc, which is also on LVMH's mantelpiece). This vintage includes 80% whole bunch and was raised in 60% new oak. The bouquet is very expressive with ebullient red berry fruit, tobacco, forest floor and subtle aromas of ceps. The palate is medium-bodied with fine yet firm tannins that lend backbone and gentle grip. This fans out with style on the sapid finish with a liberal sprinkling of black pepper. The 2023 ranks alongside the 2022 and may even surpass it. Prices have skyrocketed in recent years and priced out many Lambrays-lovers, but one cannot deny the quality – Aging potential 2065

If you want to explore current Clos des Lambrays acquisition opportunities, book your free consultation call here

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Business Logic and Ecosystem Synergy

LVMH’s wine strategy is not a nostalgic collection of châteaux; it is a coherent ecosystem that mirrors its fashion and jewelry structure.

Wines & Spirits act as cultural ambassadors, flowing naturally into hospitality, travel, art, and gifting, the experiential face of luxury. When a guest opens a bottle of Dom Pérignon in a Cheval Blanc hotel, or discovers Ruinart at a Dior event, the emotional bridge between categories becomes seamless.

Financially, wine offers diversification and resilience: it compounds slowly, buffered by scarcity and time. Culturally, it extends LVMH’s narrative beyond fashion into something elemental:  the expression of place and human craft.

Lessons for Investors and Collectors

What LVMH achieves on a corporate scale, private collectors can emulate individually.

• Think in decades, not quarters. Great wines appreciate through patience and provenance.

• Choose authenticity over novelty. Estates that endure are those anchored in place, not trends.

• Invest in scarcity and story. When supply cannot expand and identity is strong, value compounds quietly.

Ruinart, Dom Pérignon, Cheval Blanc, d’Yquem, and Clos des Lambrays are more than assets: they are philosophies bottled. Investing in wine is not merely acquiring a product; it is embracing a worldview where time, patience, and craftsmanship shape enduring value. In an age obsessed with speed and speculation, wine reminds us that true wealth is not built. It is cultivated, quietly, over time.

Marc Lafleur Founder, Lafleur Wines