At first glance this is not an obvious choice by any means, chiefly because it is a Muslim country.However, the UAE is already a market of over 1.3m bottles (1,386,966 to be exact which is more than either China or Russia although this is unlikely to be the case for much longer) and grew 18% over 2011.
As the CIVC’s Thibault le Mailloux explains: “The UAE has grown. It’s a Muslim country but there’s a growing tourist industry, luxury hotel and hospitality scene and international community.”
Add in a thriving and fabulous travel retail industry which caters to prestige and excess in equal measure and it becomes clear that the UAE has more to it than meets the eye, even if it will be a market where true appreciation is never more than skin deep.
