Building Buckets: What Fine Wine Can Learn from Luxury Brands' Data Playbook

What does a luxury boutique know about customer loyalty that most wineries, merchants, and retailers don't? Unsurprisingly, quite a lot. In this episode, Pauline sits down in Hong Kong with Charles de la Portbarré, a mathematician who has spent 15 years building customer data models and loyalty programs for major luxury houses. Together they unpack "clienteling" — the practice of segmenting your customers, analyzing their purchase history, and tailoring how you engage with them depending on where they sit in their journey with your brand. They dig into customer loyalty strategies, allocation systems, and the practical steps wine businesses — whether they sell direct-to-consumer or through distributors — can take to grow not just sales performance, but long-term customer engagement and retention. The result is a practical, step-by-step guide to building a customer segmentation strategy for wine, even if all you have to start with is an Excel spreadsheet of sales transactions. Topics discussed include: • What luxury brands measure today — and why engagement matters more than sales alone • The principles of clienteling and how to apply them in wine • The four essential customer buckets: new, loyal, re-engaged, and dropped clients • Why re-engaging former customers is often more valuable than acquiring new ones • How to identify future ambassadors for your brand • Allocation systems, fairness, and the challenge of developing future customers About the Guest: Charles de La Portbarre is a data scientist and client analytics specialist with over 15 years of experience, including nearly a decade working for major international luxury Maisons in Hong Kong and Asia. His work focuses on translating complex customer behaviour data into actionable commercial strategy, with a particular expertise in clienteling, customer segmentation, and loyalty programme design. About Areni Global: In Conversation is the podcast of Areni Global, an independent think tank dedicated to the future of fine wine. Hosted by Pauline Vicard, each episode features in-depth conversations with experts from wine, luxury, retail, finance, and beyond — exploring the ideas and strategies shaping the future of fine wine. Subscribe / Follow: Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major podcast platforms. Search Areni Global In Conversation. Subscribe to Areni newsletter: https://bit.ly/AreniNewsletter