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We caught up with Tom Gearing, Founder and CEO of Cult Wines to discuss the younger generations who are shaping the future of the fine wine market
Millennials have copped a lot of flack over the years, from being branded the ‘snowflake generation’ to being accused of overspending on avocado toast. But those born between 1981 and 1996 may also be responsible for some key technological and economic shifts, including the way we engage with wine and how it is collected and valued.
Tom Gearing is one such millennial. At the age of 37, the Co-Founder and CEO of Cult Wines, a pioneering global leader in fine wine portfolio management, is paving the way for other young people to buy, sell and collect wines.
Gearing loved wine, or at least the culture around it, long before he could drink it. “I spent my childhood in the cellars in Burgundy with my father,” he says. “My dad was a big wine collector. He was passionate about wine and fell in love with Burgundy in particular, so I used to accompany him on trips down to France and we’d spend a couple of weeks going from cellar door to cellar door.” He didn’t know it then, but this early access to the rarefied world of fine wines and the insights he gleaned from meeting with winegrowers, winemakers and merchants would prove pivotal to his future career path.
Tom Gearing as a child in Burgundy, with his father Phillip
As a teenager, Gearing spent his summers working at his father’s company Financial Wines, where he developed a keen interest in the business of fine wine. “At that age, I realised that the wine market was super inefficient, but also that wines increased in value, but more than this, that they are timeless touchstones and cultural reference points” he says. “So when I left university, it was an opportunity to have a company that offered an easier, more accessible way for people to discover, track and collect wine.”
That company was Cult Wines, co-founded by Gearing and his father Philip in 2007, and which Gearing describes as “like a private bank for wine". “For me, it’s always been an inherent understanding that wine is something that generally over the long term appreciates because of the supply and demand factors,” he says. “There’s a fundamental economic structure that leads wine to grow in worth, but no one really knows about it, no one really knows how to access it, it’s quite difficult for people who don’t have the expertise.”
Gearing saw his role as bridging that gap and providing the expertise. Cult Wines combines unparalleled wine knowledge, a world-class investment team and cutting-edge data driven technology to make fine wine buying and collecting as effortless as possible. “You have a relationship manager like you would at a private bank, everything is done for you, it’s a really hands-on experience.”
But where Cult Wines requires a minimum investment of 25k, the platform’s latest innovation, a marketplace called CultX, offers open access to all, with no barriers to entry. It’s the first fine wine marketplace designed specifically with younger generations in mind, centred around an understanding that the future of fine wine lies with millennials and Gen Z. These age groups increasingly seek access to a wider variety of wines, lower fees, greater control over their portfolios, detailed product information, authenticity, transparent pricing, and quick liquidation options.
And CultX is responding to these demands by making fine wine buying not only effortless, but also fun. Wine buyers and collectors can connect and trade directly with one another, eliminating the middleman and creating an open marketplace. It’s all in the name of evolving the industry and making wine investing cool again, says Gearing. “Instead of that old, red trouser-wearing stereotype that maybe makes younger generations think, ‘that’s not for me’.”
With CultX, users can build a world-class wine collection from their smartphone. “It’s the mobile-first digital experience that people just come to expect now,” says Gearing. “What do you expect of your bank? What do you expect from your financial services? These days, you have to have on-demand, instant access on your phone – data that you can trust and use. So we’ve tried to recreate that experience that we’re all now so accustomed to, but obviously in our category. And I think that’s why it’s appealing to [young] people.”
So, where would he suggest a young person interested in the prospect of entering the fine wine market begin? “Stay in the classic regions: Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne, Italy and the US. [They] are the five core cornerstones of the wine investment market, because they are on the secondary market, they’re the wines that trade at auction houses, they’re the wines with the most amount of information available, so they’re the safest places to put your money,” says Gearing. “But the more adventurous might want to get into stuff like German Riesling, or wines from South America.”
From the increasing interest in ‘passion investments’ – things like fine wines, watches and vintage cars – it’s clear that millennials are looking to engage with products differently from their parents and grandparents. “I think our parents’ generation has different values and different kinds of concepts around money, like needing to have savings accounts and needing to have bonds and needing to have three or four per cent interest and that’s the safest thing to do,” says Gearing. “I don’t think our generation thinks like that.” There is a growing emotional element to buying and selling fine wines. Young people appreciate wine as a cultural investment, rather than a merely financial one. “We put more value on cultural cachet and having attachment to things that we grow up with and have nostalgia around,” says Gearing. “And if you can make money as well, that’s a win-win situation.”
Tom Gearing photographed by Adam Fussell at Gentleman's Journal Live 2025
Ultimately, Gearing and his team are on a mission to transform the way people interact with fine wine. “We're breaking down barriers to make the market more accessible for a new generation of buyers and investors while empowering existing collectors and investors with greater transparency, deeper data, and real liquidity,” he says. “By reducing fees, increasing ease of trading, and putting control back in the hands of users, CultX enables collectors to connect and trade directly with one another, cutting out the middleman and unlocking a smarter, open fine wine marketplace.”
