NBA players operate on a different plane—sometimes literally, drinking trophy bottles on private flights—and their wine habits during the season reflect that altitude. While most people debate whether a bottle is “special‑occasion worthy,” some players finish a game and immediately try to source Domaine de la Romanée‑Conti, the famously scarce Burgundy estate whose wines routinely sell for five figures.

Thatcher Baker‑Briggs, certified sommelier and founder of Thatcher’s Wine, has had to handle many requests like that, at times having to hunt down a $7,000 bottle on a late New York night to be, as he put it, “DoorDashed to your house very quickly.” It’s a glimpse into a wine culture that has moved far beyond nightclub Champagne and status bottles. Today’s players who are into wine drink with aplomb, and have educated opinions on things like limestone and fermentation vessels.

Some players still begin with the expensive, highly recognizable labels that sellers tend to push on wealthy buyers—wines like Screaming Eagle, Pétrus, or the occasional trophy Burgundy. Carlton McCoy, master sommelier and CEO of Lawrence Wine Estates, said athletes are often treated as “whales,” and steered toward the priciest bottles first.

But for the players who get serious, the arc doesn’t stop there. As their interest deepens, they start traveling to places like Burgundy and Napa, meeting winemakers and asking questions. “It’s not just a status symbol,” McCoy said. “They’re culturally curious.”

That subset of players has helped shift the league’s palate. The old model—big Napa Cabernets and flashy Champagne—has given way to wines with nuance, structure, and a sense of place among those who choose to go deeper.

Burgundy: The Rite of Passage

For NBA players who move past the initial luxury‑label phase, Burgundy is often the first region that pulls them into deeper waters. It’s where they start paying attention to producers, vintages, and style, rather than just focusing on price. “Once you get in it, there’s really nothing better,” said Baker‑Briggs.

It’s also where the late‑night texts begin. Draymond Green recently tried a white Burgundy from Domaine Vincent Dancer, now made largely by Vincent’s son Théo, a young winemaker whose bottles have become increasingly sought after, and immediately messaged Baker‑Briggs. “Dude, I just had this wine, I need you to find me all of it,” he told Baker-Briggs.

But Burgundy isn’t the final destination. It’s the moment players realize wine is more than a flex—and then they keep going. McCoy sees it constantly. “They’ve gotten a little over Burgundy now,” he said. “They went so hard and learned so much.”

Geeky Champagne: The New Flex

The Champagne players drink today has nothing to do with the nightclub bottles of the early 2000s. Instead, they’re chasing grower Champagne—small‑production, vineyard‑specific wines made by the people who farm the grapes.

Selosse, Ulysse Collin, and Jérôme Prévost are the names circulating in group chats and on team planes. “None of them drink Cristal,” noted McCoy. 

And they don't necessarily drink it in flutes, something that Baker‑Briggs has strong feelings about (“Champagne flutes and coupes should really just never exist anywhere. You ruin everything about the wine, and you miss the aromatics.”). Instead, they use white wine glasses, where the aromatics actually show. Champagne, in this world, is treated like the serious wine it is.

Old‑School Napa & Niche Barolo

After Burgundy and Champagne, NBA players don’t go bigger—they go older and cooler.

Library Napa is a major obsession: Heitz, Stony Hill, Mayacamas, Burgess. These estates are known for balance and structure, not the high‑alcohol style of the Parker era, a stretch from the 1990s through the early 2010s when critic Robert Parker’s influence drove wineries—especially in Napa—to make riper, higher‑alcohol, more heavily oaked wines that matched his palate and earned high scores.

Instead, players want the vintages with history. “They want ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, nothing younger,” said McCoy. What appeals to players now is that these older Napa wines are ready to drink, because most aren’t looking to cellar bottles for decades. They want wines they can open and enjoy right away.

Then there’s Barolo; not the famous names, but the geeky ones. “They want the cool niche Barolo producers,” McCoy explained. The appeal is that these wines deliver Burgundian elegance and aromatic complexity without Burgundy’s $5,000 price tags, and players have started to treat the region as the next frontier.

How They Actually Drink: Urgency, Access, and Volume

The most distinctive part of NBA wine culture isn’t what players drink—it’s how they drink it.

They drink immediately. They drink socially. They drink in quantities that would flatten most civilians. McCoy has learned not to try to match their pace. “These are large human beings… they can consume an enormous amount,” he said.

Baker‑Briggs tailors his allocations to the way players actually drink. He sends only a few bottles at a time and keeps the rest in storage, knowing that if everything shows up at once, it’ll get opened. For him, it’s a way to help players enjoy bottles in the moment without losing sight of the long game. This is not a collector culture in the traditional sense. This is a “let’s open a case of Selosse at dinner” culture.

Who Drives Trends

LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul were early adopters, and their influence still shapes the league’s palate. Anthony, in particular, has surprisingly classical taste—“almost like an old British guy,” McCoy said, describing his love of old Claret and Napa. Paul helped drive the early wave of interest simply by being one of the first players to take wine seriously, and James’ curiosity has made him one of the most diverse drinkers in the league—someone who’ll try anything, even bottles that contradict his usual preferences. “He has the energy of an entrepreneur,” McCoy said. “He’s open to everything.”  

But trendsetting can be simpler than that. Sometimes it’s just the player who brings the best bottle onto the team plane, Baker-Briggs said. 

The Finals Effect

Players currently still in the Finals aren’t drinking. But the moment the season ends, the requests start up again. Baker‑Briggs knows what’s coming—the celebratory orders, the “we need a case of this” texts, the scramble to find bottles that rarely appear on the market.

The bottles that NBA players want now say more about taste than status. The league’s palate has matured. The flex has changed shape.

And in a world where great bottles often disappear into storage, waiting for the right market moment or the next auction cycle, players bring a different energy entirely. They’re not treating wine like a financial instrument or a long‑term asset class. “These guys are actually helping with consumption,” McCoy said. They’re treating wine like something meant to be opened, shared, and enjoyed. Simply put, according to McCoy, “They buy the wines and they drink them.”