Joshua Ochia

Vintage Associates

Vintage Associates is a wine investment platform that enables users to invest in, manage, and track premium wine assets through a modern digital experience.

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Overview

Vintage Associates is a premium wine investment and lifestyle platform that enables users to invest in rare wines, manage portfolios, and access bespoke concierge services through a modern digital experience.

The platform combines financial infrastructure, wine market data, and lifestyle services into a single ecosystem built for scale, compliance, and reliability.

Objectives

  • Launch a production-ready mobile-first investment platform
  • Support real-time wine availability and pricing
  • Enable secure payments and subscriptions
  • Meet KYC and compliance requirements
  • Provide a scalable backend and cloud infrastructure
  • Extend the product beyond investing into lifestyle and concierge services

Solution

Mobile Application

  • Built a cross-platform mobile app using Expo (React Native)
  • Focused on performance, UX consistency, and rapid iteration
  • Integrated error tracking and alerting using Sentry for proactive debugging

Backend & Infrastructure

  • Implemented a Django REST Framework (DRF) backend
  • Containerized services using Docker
  • Deployed and managed the platform on AWS ECS
  • Designed for scalability, observability, and operational stability

Key Integrations

Wine Market Data

  • Liv-ex integration for wine availability and market validation
  • Wine-Searcher integration for real-time wine pricing and comparison
  • Enabled accurate portfolio valuation and investment decisions

Payments & Subscriptions

  • Integrated Stripe for:
    • Monthly subscription fees
    • One-time checkout payments
  • Designed for secure and compliant financial transactions

Compliance & Security

  • Implemented Veriff for KYC and identity verification
  • Added Twilio SMS OTP for authentication flows
  • Built an in-house MFA system for enhanced account security

Content & Insights

  • Integrated Contentful as a headless CMS
  • Used for editorial content, insights, and educational materials
  • Enabled non-technical teams to manage content independently

Concierge & Lifestyle Services

Beyond investing, the platform supports premium lifestyle features:

  • Concierge wine sourcing for rare and hard-to-find bottles
  • Special requests for private collections and allocations
  • Event hosting, including:
    • Wine tastings
    • Private gatherings
    • Sports and lifestyle events

This positioned Vintage Associates as not just an investment platform, but a luxury lifestyle brand.

Market Data & Indices

To provide a broader view of market performance and macroeconomic context, the platform integrates multiple financial and wine-specific indices into a unified analytics experience.

  • Liv-ex indices for fine wine market performance
  • Yahoo Finance data sources for gold and financial market benchmarks
  • Interest rate and inflation data to contextualize investment conditions
  • Custom-built indices tailored to Vintage Associates’ wine portfolios

All indices are visualized in a single, consolidated graph, allowing users to compare:

  • Wine performance vs traditional assets
  • Macro trends vs portfolio value
  • Market movements over time in one view

This enabled investors to better understand overall market conditions, diversification, and long-term performance trends.

Outcome

  • Successfully launched a scalable, production-ready platform
  • Enabled secure investing, compliance, and payments
  • Delivered a seamless mobile experience
  • Unified investment, data, and lifestyle services in one ecosystem
  • Established a strong technical foundation for future growth

Tech Stack

  • Mobile: Expo, React Native
  • Backend: Django, Django REST Framework
  • Infrastructure: Docker, AWS ECS
  • Payments: Stripe
  • Monitoring: Sentry
  • Auth & Security: Veriff, Twilio, In-house MFA
  • CMS: Contentful
  • Integrations: Liv-ex, Wine-Searcher

Conclusion

Vintage Associates brings together investment infrastructure, real-time market data, and premium lifestyle services into a single, scalable platform. By combining secure payments, regulatory compliance, and deep wine and financial market integrations, the platform delivers a trusted and modern investment experience. This foundation positions Vintage Associates to grow beyond wine investing into a broader luxury and alternative-asset ecosystem.