wine-and-spirits
(4)
Treasury Wine Estates
The company behind Penfolds spent a decade buying wine brands. Now it is cutting three quarters of them - and betting the whole business on the bottles people are willing to pay the most for.
Biltmore
America's largest privately owned home survives because the family behind it built a business around the visit - then kept finding reasons for guests to stay, dine, drink, shop and return.
Steric
Steric is a Culver City, California technology company that uses low-energy electromagnetic fields to adjust wine and spirits at a molecular level in seconds - improving flavor, aroma and mouthfeel without adding, filtering or aging. Its patent-pending, software-driven systems let distillers and winemakers rescue flawed batches, lock in batch-to-batch consistency, and polish premium products while preserving ABV and color. The company won the 2023 DISCUS Innovation Showcase and closed a $3.5M seed round in October 2025.
World Market
World Market (legally Cost Plus World Market) is an American specialty retailer that has sold globally sourced furniture, home decor, gourmet foods, wine, coffee and gifts since 1958. From its first shop on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, it grew into a chain of roughly 240+ stores across the United States plus a fast-growing e-commerce business, built on the idea that a shopper in suburban America can fill a cart with hand-picked goods from dozens of countries at affordable prices.