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Wine Lister joins forces with French media giant

Published:  04 February, 2020

UK-based fine wine agency and analytics platform, Wine Lister, has been acquired by French media outfit, Groupe Figaro.

The French company produces the oldest national daily newspaper in France and has its own dedicated wine website. It has acquired 100% of the share capital of Wine Lister with the aim growing the “ultimate fine wine ecosystem in France, the UK, and beyond”.

The acquisition marks a new phase of development for Wine Lister, which was co-founded by wine writer, analyst and consultant Ella Lister back in 2016.

Since then it grown with the aim of becoming a one-stop shop for those looking to back up their fine wine investments with statistical analysis, with reports and rankings ranging predominantly across Burgundy, Bordeaux and Italy.

For Wine Lister, this means the company will continue to operate under its own brand and will remain headquartered in London, benefiting from the group’s “brand, reach, know-how, and support structure”, while their analytics know-how will help Groupe Figaro to “reinforce its wine activities” via its wine website, Figaro Vin, the two companies said. 

“Ella Lister and her team have done an outstanding job at creating a benchmark information business for the demanding and sophisticated wine market. We look forward to joining forces to increase Le Figaro and Wine Lister’s footprint on this market, nationally and internationally,” Groupe Figaro’s deputy CEO, Jean-Luc Breysse said. 

Wine Lister offers various reports and rankings of wines from key regions via its Wine Lister “Pro” score.

These come from a basket of ‘top 50’ wines that have been identified across a number of metrics, including the scores of wine world elites such as Bettane+Desseauve, Antonio Galloni, Neal Martin, Jancis Robinson, Jeannie Cho Lee and Jasper Morris.

Most recently, Wine Lister released its scores for the Burgundy 2018 vintage, which featured on Harpers.

As well as remaining as MD of her wine ranking company, as of April 1, Lister will also begin a new role as directrice déléguée at Figaro Vin, leading the diversification of Le Figaro’s wine activities in Paris.

Speaking of the planned synergies between the two companies, Lister said: “Le Figaro is the perfect home for Wine Lister. I am immensely excited by the opportunities this deal will afford the company I started almost four years ago, not to mention by my new expanded role developing Le Figaro’s wine activities.”






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