The Latest Ultra-Luxury Building Amenity? Private Sommeliers
Remember the quiet luxury of a couple years ago?
That era of restrained opulence died long before Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez embarked on the $20 million-plus Venetian wedding that has defined the summer of 2025. Consider the more than $2 million the duo spent on wine and spirits alone, including $500,000 on 20 magnums of 1961 Dom Pérignon, nearly $400,000 for 20 six-liter bottles of 2003 Dom Pérignon Rosé, $799,000 for 500 bottles of 1996 Dom Pérignon Brut (one of the most highly regarded vintages of the Champagne), $137,500 on rare rums and $70,260 on 15 bottles of Louis XIII Cognac.
“I’ve never seen such a high-caliber selection served at a wedding—not even among other billionaires who’ve hosted events in Venice or elsewhere in Europe,” the source, who worked on the wedding, told the U.S. Sun.
In other words, we’re entering new territory when it comes to wine extravagance. Indeed, members of the ultra-wealthy are increasingly seeking out highly customized drinking experiences—even at home.
Gone are the days when private gyms and concierge services were considered top eye-catching amenities. Today’s gilded towers come with their own personal sommeliers and other splashy wine-focused features. Here are some of the wildest.
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Designing Spaces for Wine
For the developers behind 1428 Brickell, an under-construction, 67-floor luxury residence in Miami where units start at $4.5 million, it was clear that extraordinarily exclusive wine experiences had to be part of the building’s design.
“We placed the wine and spirits lounge at the very top of the tower,” says Andrew Kraynak, chief sales officer at $2 billion real estate development company Ytech. “It’s not simply an amenity, but a carefully considered extension of the home.” The soaring two-story hangout is staffed by a full-time beverage director and sommelier and features private wine lockers for every residence complete with temperature control. There’s also a fully-stocked bar serving craft cocktails and quick bites.
“The sommelier will be there to open special bottles, advise on future allocations and help secure them,” explains Kraynak. This is, of course, in addition to the additional wine storage in each of the units—some with a capacity of 600-plus bottles.
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Building a (High-End) Community
Other developments for the rich and sometimes famous, like the Lower East Side’s One Manhattan Square, use wine to create community, says Bryan Grandison, director of lifestyle services for the building.
“We want to give residents a sense of freedom to live outside of their [apartments],” Grandison says, adding that the 815 units start at $1.2 million. Not that occupants should be forced to venture too far: “We have 100,000 square feet of amenities inside and outside, from a performance space and the highest residential infinity pool in the Western Hemisphere, to a wine library.”
In the wine library, residents can use refrigerated cabinets for their already existing wine collections and access specialized programs designed to meet their wine education needs. Grandison brings in Emanuele Santocá, wine director of Pasanella & Son Vintners, to lead tastings for residents.
“The team at Pasanella works with residents to create and expand wine collections, and provides complimentary same-day [bottle] delivery,” Grandison explains, adding that Santocá frequently helps clients secure hard-to-find allocations of rare wines.
But the white glove service, impressive and useful as it may be, is just part of Grandison’s larger wine-splashed vision for the building.
“We’ve created a community within our community through these wine events,” he says. “Several people—some single, some coupled, ages late 20s to early 60s—have created their own wine club because of the events. They hold regular tastings together, and have even taken a trip to Italy together. It’s so cool to see cross-generational groups of people forming a real community.”
Fine Dining (and Drinking) at Home
Wine consumption may be down overall globally, but that doesn’t mean the uber-rich are engaging with wine culture any less. It certainly helps when there’s a fancy restaurant with a wine program in your building.
At One Wall Street in Manhattan’s Financial District, which is billed as downtown luxury with an uptown pedigree, the residents are perched atop luxury Parisian retailer Printemps. The building is home to Printemps’s four restaurant concepts, which include a French fine-dining spot led by James Beard Award-winning chef Gregory Gourdet, a seafood-forward bistro, a casual all-day café and a cocktail lounge. In addition, there’s a private residential restaurant overseen by Daniel Boulud’s former director of operations Michael Lawrence.
Printemps sommelier Adrien Piechot has been tasked with connecting the epicurean dots for resident wine lovers.
“We have become a home away from home for residents,” Piechot says. “I just hosted a private event for a resident with 60 guests. I love working with residents on events at our many spaces, but I also love finding that super rare 1989 Petrus for collectors. At the store, we carry a lot of French wine, but I am available to source anything they want, and have it delivered to their door.”
Piechot is also on-call for personal wine shopping on the fly, event coordination and more serious wine accrual and collection planning.
Further uptown, 53 West 53, designed by French architect Jean Nouvel with custom interiors by Thierry Despont, is home to 145 light-filled units and the contemporary Asian restaurant 53 NYC. The eatery’s wine director, Nikki Ledbetter, says she hosts a dedicated contingent of regulars from the building, many with whom she works one-on-one as part of her job.
“Residents actually have their own private elevator that comes directly to the restaurant, so I see a lot of them almost daily,” Ledbetter says. “I curate selections for their cellar, and I also help plan dinner for residents. Their amenity space and their individual wine vaults are absolutely incredible.”
And by incredible, she really means incredible. The building’s octagonal wine room features a luxurious lounge area, individual wine cellars for residents, walnut and cork flooring and a double-height ceiling arrayed with gold leaf.
Will high-end wine amenities solve the problem of declining wine consumption? Fix the loneliness epidemic? Emphasize the widening gap between the haves and have-nots? It’s hard to say. But so long as the Jeff Bezos of the world continue to splash out big for high-end booze, there will be others eager to emulate them.
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