Polly Hammond is founder and CEO of 5forests, the global wine marketing agency she started in 2015 to help wine sellers get to grips with the digital age. She is also managing director of Wine Cellar Door, the UK’s oldest winery visitation directory, and co-founder of Wine Culture Lab, a cultural insights and trend forecasting studio.

Polly is a leading voice on marketing wine to Millennials and Gen Z, hosts podcasts on the business of wine, and was named one of Wine’s Most Inspiring People and a Wine Business Leader in 2025. Her work draws on behavioral economics and more than 25 years of building successful companies. She splits her time between Barcelona, Bordeaux, London and Napa.

It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine): Why everything we know about the wine business is changing, and why that’s good for all of us?

The ground under the wine business is moving on almost every front at once: who buys wine, how they buy it, how it reaches them, what they’ll pay for, why they visit and where wine lives in culture at all. Taken one session at a time, that can sound like a lot to absorb. Polly Hammond will argue it’s simpler than it looks, and point to where Bulgarian producers have room to act now.