The international wine and spirits marketplace has introduced new global portfolio management (GPM) and expanded teams operating across Asia, US, UK and Europe.

London-headquartered FINE+RARE Group – an international marketplace for wine, spirits and collectable experiences – has made 10 new hires across its global portfolio. With $750 million of fine wine and spirits under management across Asia, the US, the UK, and Europe, FINE+RARE said it is expanding teams within site development, sales and customer experience.

The new hires come from some of the industry’s fine wine brands and auction houses, but the FINE+RARE team is continuing to recruit additional talent across markets in the coming weeks.

As FINE+RARE expands its presence in Asia, Hong Kong-based Jose Lau is joining as its new sales director Asia. With a 14-year tenure in the industry, Lau is joining from Britain’s oldest wine and spirits merchant Berry Bros & Rudd where he worked as head of sales, private clients, the firm said in a statement.

The expansion will see the creation of a new global portfolio management team. The GPM division will advise on everything related to the buying, selling and storing of clients’ wine and spirits. FINE+RARE group’s GPM sector will be led by vice president of global portfolio management Allan Frischman in the US – he was previously at Sotheby’s and Hart Davis Hart Wine. Additional GPM members include Ashika Matthews as portfolio manager in the UK, a wine writer and maker, and Desiree Anderson as portfolio manager in the US, who joined the FINE+RARE team in 2023.

Further hires across teams include Andrea Olalla as head of customer experience in London, Christie Chan as customer experience executive in Hong Kong and Brenda Ramirez as sales support associate in the US. They also include Peter Hauszknecht as lead backend developer in Hungary, Csaba Hovráth as senior backend developer in Hungary and Jonathan Garcia as warehouse operations manager in the US. Most recently, Ricardo Carre joined the Vinfolio account management team as a client advisor following FINE+RARE’s acquisition of the US platform in 2023, the firm added.

"The new hires' expertise and dedication to excellence will be instrumental in supporting our continued global growth. This team will also support our ongoing mission to enhance our ability to provide outstanding service to all our fine wine and spirits global markets,” Patrick O’Connor, CEO of FINE+RARE Group, said.

The FINE+RARE marketplace delivers access to producers, cellars and collections. The company has operations worldwide, with locations in London, Milan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Napa and Budapest. Across the single unified digital platform, the site is designed mainly for collectors who buy, store, and sell their luxury portfolio.