Spritzy, acidic, bright wines are the Vinhos Verdes region’s bread and butter – the expressions that have drawn an international audience to the northern Portuguese wine appellation. Take the UK, which has become a resolute export destination in recent years. Between 2015 and 2024, sales to our domestic market have more than tripled from around €2m (£1.7m) to close to €6.9m (£6m).
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Portuguese wine is in a good place right now. Even a few years ago, we would have to patiently explain our varieties and regions, but now consumers – many familiar with the country through tourism – seem at ease with them,” says Anthony Symington, deputy head of sales at Symington Family Estates (SFE). The famous Anglo-Portuguese Port family made its debut into table wine around 1999, focusing on the Douro. Since then, however – in a pattern familiar among other Portuguese winemaking families and companies – SFE has spread away from its home base. The first ever winemaking venture outside the Douro took them in 2017 to Alentejo’s relatively cool-climate Portalegre, where they bought and modernised Quinta da Fonte Souto – where Symington says the Arinto- and Verdelho-based whites in particular have proved “a revelation”.
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Can no-alcohol wine ever replicate the taste and complexity of the real deal? Principles of chemistry do prove it to be a challenging conundrum. The ethanol in wine has a vital influence on the sensory experience of the drink and at room temperature ethanol has a greater volatility than water. This means it evaporates more quickly from liquid into gas than water, and in the process carrying with it aromatic compounds like esters. This is just one such effect alcohol has on wine’s nose and flavour. Ultimately, however, the most important taste audience for producers of no-alcohol wine is the end consumer. Harpers spoke to a retailer, an importer and a producer to assess both technological progress and whether this has had an impact on the commercial appeal of no-alcohol wine.
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The way that wine is made is transforming. Climate change is sweeping away old agricultural rhythms and patterns and replacing them with something new. In many places, it may sweep them away entirely.
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If you’re becoming tired of negative headlines around the drinks sector, look away now. The latest financial results from Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Treasury Wine Estates offer a sobering snapshot of the global market. Citing macroeconomic uncertainty – alongside the impact of tariffs – in the US and China, Pernod Ricard reported a 5.9% decline in organic sales to €5.25bn in the first half of its financial year. Likewise, recent results from Diageo and interim figures from TWE suggest that a convergence of forces – structural, geopolitical and operational – are placing significant strain on the premiumisation model that delivered record growth at the beginning of the 21st century.
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The faint smell of smoke in the air is all too familiar to those living in California’s wine regions, but lately the source will have been a vine pull rather than a wildfire, as producers grapple with a crisis being described as a reset. As the world’s fourth largest wine producer – after Italy, France and Spain – the Golden State accounts for more than 80% of US wine output and 95% of exports, with vines covering almost 250,000ha. The California Wine Institute estimates the industry generates $73bn (£55bn), employing 422,000 people.
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Articles on sustainability tend to focus on big topic such as the widespread impacts of climate change. Covering such subjects is important, but it can leave smaller-scale topics overlooked. High time, then, for a look at some less conventional projects that are making a difference in the vineyard.
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In the fight to stay in business in an increasingly competitive world, independents are focusing on the ‘local factor’. Oliver Catchpole reports.
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A familiar red is exploring new territory with an excursion into a different expression, reports Oliver Catchpole.
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Mendoza’s winemakers scaled new heights to unlock a brave new world of travel, taste and terroir. Now they’re ready for the next chapter, writes Jo Gilbert.
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Argentina has been on an export journey not untypical of much of the wine market – both value and volume sales over the past five years have been on a downward trajectory.
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With many restaurants currently fighting to survive, how can they prompt customers to trade up, asks Chris Losh.
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Amanda Barnes MW explores whether these wines deserve recognition as a category in their own right.
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James Lawrence assesses South American Chardonnay’s ability to sit at the top table.
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Andrew Catchpole invites leading importers and producers to comment on the significant trends they and their comrades are seeing across the Argentinian, Chilean and Uruguayan wine scene.
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In a latest twist, the long-awaited EU-Mercosur Partnership Agreement has been delayed after the European Parliament voted to refer the deal to the EU Court of Justice following opposition from the French agricultural sector. It took 25 years for the EU Council to sign the Interim Trade Agreement in January, but its completion is now, however, in sight.
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It’s a sunny afternoon in early November and tourist traffic is building along Lanzarote’s famed La Geria wine route, running through the island’s eerie lunar-like volcanic landscape.
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Headlines such as ‘Rum is the big success story of the last decade’ always provoke a ‘duh’ reaction in me. I should know, I’ve enjoyed the rise of rum as a front-seat passenger for the better part of 20 years. But there is also the smug satisfaction of knowing we are in a fabulous era for tasting experiences that range from cost-effective to uber-niche sugarcane spirits from corners of the world that few knew had a rum tradition. A population with exciting diversity has a rum selection to match.
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Wine critic and consultant Ben Bernheim isn’t one to mince words when it comes to rosé – a category he claims is “doing well despite the best efforts of the trade”.
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For the media – both trade and mainstream – the hype related to artificial intelligence’s disruptive potential has filled column inches. Despite huge claims from Silicon Valley’s tech leaders often not materialising, there are early signs the technology may be having an appreciable impact on productivity. An assessment of whether AI-induced progress has been made (or not) within the drinks trade is sorely needed. Harpers charts the lie of the land and speaks to a leading wine business about how AI’s integration – from vineyard to boardroom – has advanced.
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