In late-January, Moët Hennessy reported a 26% increase in full-year sales from 2021. Just Drinks picks through the wine & spirits group's performance over the past five years for the trends set to affect the company, specifically, and the global wine and spirits categories, more broadly. When announcing its full-year results for 2019 two years ago, Moet-Hennessy was at pains to put analysts at ease during the early months of the COVID-19 outbreak, stressing that its long-term ethos and focus on high-end products - underpinned by the stability of family ownership - would enable it to ride out the crisis. At that stage, nobody could have predicted the seismic effects of the pandemic. By January 2021, the damage was there for all to see in Moët Hennessy’s 2020 results: sales down 14%, thanks to COVID and the group’s exposure to the hard-hit Chinese market, not to mention the high-end on-premise and Global Travel Retail sales channels. Even then, there were more positive signs in the detail. As the drinks division of the LVMH luxury giant, Moet Hennessy showed far greater resilience than the likes of 'Perfume & Cosmetics', or 'Watches & Jewellery'; what's more, a strong showing from the key US and Chinese markets in the second half of the year had mitigated a far more devastating 26% sales slump in the first six months of 2021. The results for 2021, despite the ongoing impact of the pandemic on GTR and the on-premise in particular, continued this impressive upward trajectory. Sales of almost EUR6bn (US$6.68bn) represented a 26% increase on 2020 and - more meaningfully - were 9% above the top-line for 2019. The group has moved beyond recovery to register significant incremental growth. The turnaround is, in reality, a continuation of a successful long-term strategy prioritising everything premium-and-above in pricing terms, from the flagship Hennessy Cognac - the world’s leading premium alcohol brand by value for the past three years - to a dominant stable of Champagne brands, plus a supporting cast in high-end whisky and vodka (plus, more recently, Tequila and rum). Transformative acquisitions are rare for Moët Hennessy - Glenmorangie for GBP300m in 2004 was the last deal of any real scale - but the company has a policy of sniffing out value-accretive bolt-on buys, such as Woodinville Whiskey Co in Washington State (2017), and a minority stake in Vermont-based rye specialist Whistlepig (2020). There has also been a regular schedule of capital investment over the past few years, including new production facilities for Moët & Chandon and Veuve Clicquot in Champagne, and Hennessy in Cognac. Malt Scotch whisky distilleries Glenmorangie and Ardbeg have also been expanded on Moët Hennessy’s watch. The company’s global reach also means that smaller names, such as Woodinville, Whistlepig and the Volcán De Mi Tierra Tequila and Eminente rum brands, can gradually and judiciously exploit improved routes-to-market to expand their international footprint. It’s a winning formula that shows no sign of losing its lustre any time soon. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(e){if(void 0!==e.data["datawrapper-height"]){var t=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var a in e.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r