The most expensive single wine purchase in duty free and travel retail has been recorded at Dubai’s luxury airport wines and spirits shop, Le Clos, where a buyer, who has not been named, snapped up eight bottles of Bordeaux for just under £ 70,000 (US$ 109,000).
Among the wines selected on Sunday 22 August, were Pétrus 1947, 1961 and a magnum of 1959. The sale is claimed, by Le Clos operator MMI, to be nearly double the previous international duty free record achieved for an individual wine purchase.
The fine wine and spirits shop in Dubai International Airport’s Emirates Terminal 3 sells some of the rarest wines in the world, although it says luxury whiskies and some other boutique spirits have also been success stories. Another outlet for Le Clos is located in the Emirates First Class Lounge.
A spokesman says Le Clos has been seeing a noticeable increase in customers purchasing high value items for gifting but also for personal consumption or to diversify their investment portfolios. Le Clos uses promotional literature in a number of languages including Russian and Chinese, specifically to tap this market.
The company also has a new inbound delivery service launched last year. This is seen as an extremely exciting development, as customers can now have their purchases delivered to them as they land at the airport having paid for them on departure via the website or on the telephone before departure.
MMI, is one of two companies licensed by the government to sell wines and spirits in specially-regulated shops in downtown Dubai. Le Clos is its retail brand for discerning customers offering some of the most exclusive wines and spirits available in the UAE. The shop claims to list over 400 wines, with France, Italy and the US heavily represented. South Africa, Spain, Australia, Chile and New Zealand make up the rest of the collection, alongside high-end spirits such as 40-year-old single malts.
Among the store’s red Bordeaux and upscale Spanish and Italian offerings, the 2005 Bordeaux has been hugely popular having been hailed as one of the best vintages of all time as well as the rare and collectable classed growths from 1982, 1996 and 2000.
According to Generation Research data, in 2008 Dubai International Airport rose to the position of the number one top-selling DF&TR location in the world, a position it held onto in 2009 with sales of US$ 1,040 million. Dubai also ranks very highly in terms of another benchmark, average sales per passenger, which in 2009 was US$ 27.85.
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