WINE & MUSIC, PART 4: WHAT WINE CAN LEARN FROM REGGAE

Some may think wine and reggae are not the most obvious pairing and that is exactly why the relationship is worth examining.

History and heritage

Reggae emerged in Jamaica in the late 1960s, evolving from ska and rocksteady while drawing on Jamaican musical traditions alongside rhythm and blues, soul and African influences. Musically, it is characterised by its prominent bass, syncopated rhythm and distinctive off-beat guitar or keyboard accents. But reggae has always been more than a sound. Born largely within marginalised communities in Kingston, it became a vehicle for social commentary, spirituality, resistance, love, justice, unity and collective identity. UNESCO, which added Reggae Music of Jamaica to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2018, describes its evolution from ska through rocksteady and its enduring role as both social commentary and a voice for community. That history and heritage matters because reggae was social before it was commercial. The music developed through communities, sound systems, shared spaces and collective experience are key characteristics that still shape how people gather around it today. Reggae’s power is more than musical. It conveys a message and creates a social environment: relaxed, communal, cross-generational and deeply connected to place, food, identity and shared ritual. For wine brands this matters because many brands are still trying to manufacture “engagement” around the product itself. Reggae culture offers a different lesson: build the occasion first, then let the drink earn its place within it.

Reggae Festivals and Wine:

At a reggae festival in Tokyo earlier this summer, people were talking beforehand about getting a Red Stripe beer and jerk chicken almost as much as the acts they wanted to see. Some came for the music and stayed for the food; others came for the drinks and discovered the music. Together these elements formed the experience rather than compete, perfectly highlighting the value of building the occasion first and letting the drink earn its place within it.

Late August, London offers a much larger expression of the same principle. Notting Hill Carnival is more than a reggae festival, its roots and programme span steelpan, calypso, soca, mas, sound-system culture and much more, but reggae and Jamaican sound-system culture have been integral to the Carnival since sound systems were formally introduced in 1973. In its 60th anniversary year, more than 30 sound systems will operate across the Carnival.

Here is where it becomes particularly interesting for wine. The UK imported approximately 1.2 billion litres of wine in 2025, making London both a major global wine hub and home to one of the world’s most visible expressions of Caribbean and sound-system culture. The drinks brands participating understand that the opportunity is bigger than product placement. For Carnival’s 60th anniversary, Hennessy worked with Carnival CEO Matthew Phillip, Bradley Zero and Nia Archives to curate 60 tracks representing six decades of Carnival sound, extending the programme through a series of events at Jumbi in Peckham. The product and the brand are present but the cultural idea leads.

Wray & Nephew is also an official partner, while Jamaican MAGNUM Tonic Wine makes its debut with its own stage at Powis Square. Historically, Carnival has attracted brands including Red Stripe, Guinness, Bacardi, Duppy Share, Malibu and Pimm’s. Which raises an obvious question for the wider wine industry: why are still, sparkling or even fortified wines not participating?

When speaking with Carnival organisers, we asked whether wine brands had explored the opportunity. Because if beer, rum, Cognac and RTDs can find a credible place within this ecosystem, there is little reason wine cannot, provided the format, occasion and cultural role make sense. While a 750ml bottle, corkscrew and stemware are clearly not designed for Carnival, a chilled can, single-serve alternative format or wine-based spritz is another proposition entirely: portable, easy to serve, food-friendly and naturally suited to informal social drinking.

Why has wine allowed other beverage categories to become so much better at belonging?

Wine has traditionally coded premium through particular environments: fine dining, formal tastings, luxury hospitality, art, classical music, jazz clubs and those associations can quietly influence where brands believe they do and do not belong. Even newer formats inherit the same assumptions. A canned wine may be designed for convenience, yet still be marketed towards a premium consumer whose cultural life is surprisingly narrow according to segmentation models. However, consumers do not behave according to neat segmentation models. The person drinking grower Champagne in a wine bar on Friday may be dancing at Notting Hill Carnival on Sunday. Someone attending a reggae festival is not suddenly a different socioeconomic or cultural consumer because the context has changed. This is where cultural participation requires brands to question inherited assumptions.

Premium is not a place, a music genre or a dress code. It is a value proposition.

The opportunity is therefore not to make reggae, Carnival or any other culture “fit” wine. The opportunity is for a wine brand to ask itself it has built formats, propositions and experiences capable of fitting naturally into the way people actually live. Repeat with me: formats, propositions, experiences that naturally fit into the way people actually live.

Here are the 3 lessons from reggae for wine:

LESSON 1: BUILD OCCASIONS, NOT CAMPAIGNS

Reggae and sound-system environments work because there is a reason to gather beyond consumption. Music, dancing, food, conversation and drink create an occasion people want to return to. Wine often reverses that hierarchy: start with the bottle, build a tasting around it, then try to make the tasting feel cultural. The better question is: what occasion does this wine belong in, and what rituals could make people look forward to it?

LESSON 2: DESIGN AN ECOSYSTEM, NOT AN ACTIVATION

Gone are the days of collections of sponsorship assets with logo slapped designs. The strongest cultural experiences live in an ecosystem where everything reinforces everything else. Food changes what people drink. Music changes how long they stay. The crowd changes the atmosphere. The drink becomes part of the memory. For wine, this means thinking beyond “wine + music” as a pairing exercise. Who is cooking? What are people eating? When is the wine served? Is it shared at a table, poured at sunset, discovered between sets? Those details create cultural relevance more effectively than another branded backdrop.

LESSON 3: EARN YOUR PLACE

Cultural participation only works when the brand has a credible role. South Africa is an interesting intersection: with 10.2 million hectolitres of wine produced in 2025 and its own long reggae history, including the extraordinary legacy of Lucky Dube. Kenya offers another, different intersection. Nairobi has an established reggae and dub sound-system community, while Kenya imported more than US$22 million of wine in 2024, with South Africa its largest supplier. These examples illustrate why brands need to look at individual markets through both a commercial and cultural lens, rather than importing assumptions.

Final lesson for wine:

People around culture, community and shared experience, not because a beverage brand told them to be there. The key is understanding how to become a natural part of that moment.

Image Copyright and Source: Abul Kashem Dreamstime.com