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Recently there has been debate aplenty in the drinks trade press about the popularity of the low and no category and its market potential. Anecdotally, Harpers continues to meet plenty in the trade – from top somms to indie merchants – with a deep interest and investment in the category. To provide clarity on consumer sentiment, hard data is needed. Step in insights provider KAM and its Drinking Differently: Low + No 2026 report. Based on a nationally representative survey of 2,000 drinking-age adults, clues emerge regarding the trajectory of the category. We take a dive into the numbers and the landscape of low and no consumption.
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“The industry doesn’t seem to be talking about water at all, and I find that really quite strange,” said Rosie Davenport, founder of sustainability consultancy Impact Focus, at a recent LWF panel debate.
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The ready-to-drink category is undoubtedly having a moment. Double-digit growth over the past year has seen it become a vital off-trade asset, for multiple retailers and independent merchants alike. According to analysis of NIQ off-trade data in the WSTA’s Sip 2 report, sales for the format grew 12% in volume and 17% in value during 2025. In total it generated £704m for the off-trade. As CEO of the trade body Miles Beale puts it: “It is welcome news to see a bright spot in the sales data.” By contrast, the overall spirits category lost around £40m in sales in the final three months of 2025 alone.
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Harpers invites leading sommeliers and buyers to reveal what is most exciting them in the world of wine.
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Differentiation is the lifeblood of indie merchants, but with supply chain and cost issues most affecting smaller retailers and more niche imports, our recent London Wine Fair trade panel explored how best to keep the offer fresh and engaging.
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It’s the biggest challenge winemakers have faced in generations – how to respond to the fact that many consumers, especially younger ones, increasingly don’t like your products. The problem is acute in Italy where many of the country’s 20 wine regions have built their reputation on red wine, often full-bodied, tannin-rich and oaked, which people now seem to like least. However, some winemakers feel they have the answer – think pink and think light reds.
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In the same week that Italy’s parliament signed off on funding for the notorious Strait of Messina bridge to connect Sicily to the mainland, the island played host to the 22nd edition of Sicilia En Primeur, connecting the world with Sicily’s contemporary wine scene in a different way. Over 1,000 wines from 56 wineries were present for the event, held in Palermo in May with the headline Taste the Island, Live the Story.
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After many years of enjoying meteoric global success, Prosecco now finds itself in a double bind. Slowing sales in key mature markets, increased competition from rival categories, and sustained pricing pressures have sparked a debate about the need to diversify its identity to secure long-term relevance. Yet for every stakeholder who advocates a broadening of positioning through mixology and new drinking occasions, there are others who insist the category’s future lies in terroir expression, gastronomic suitability and drier styles. It’s an existential argument over the most fundamental question facing the category today: what exactly does Prosecco want to become?
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Tucked into the north-eastern corner of Italy, hugging the borders of Austria and Slovenia, Friuli is both a shorthand for Friuli-Venezia Giulia and a byword for fresh and fruity wines with gentle depth and complexity perfectly suited to summer.
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Italy remains a powerhouse in terms of wine production, again topping the world’s volume output as a country for 2025, up from 2024’s near 44 million hectolitres to a heady 47 million hectolitres last year. Sparkling, led by the ongoing and seemingly unstoppable success of prosecco, continues to dominate, with the likes of still Pinot Grigio also feeding into export positivity.
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Most often associated with celebration, sparkling wines positioned between Prosecco and Champagne have reason to raise a glass to themselves as they continue to outperform their still counterparts in the UK, bucking the trend with rises in CAGR and appealing to consumers’ appetite for experimentation and discovering new ways of getting more bang for their buck.
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Wine has been made in California since the late 18th century and its industry has seen it all – from phylloxera and Prohibition to the Judgment of Paris – so the Golden State’s current crisis needs to be seen through the prism of perspective.
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Another fine vintage ending in a five to continue Bordeaux’s happy sequence since 1985 – or 1990 if we’re including years ending in a nought too. But this one has come at a cost, with the smallest crop since 1991 and low yields across the board.
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The quality of Chinese wines has massively improved in recent years, with premium wines from the People’s Republic now on a par with those from more traditional winemaking regions. Producers have been taking full advantage of the great diversity of climates that come naturally with China’s vast size – much of it “ideally suited” to making great wine, according to Michael Palij MW, senior advisor for specialist importer Vinum Eurus.
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“Native, natural, furry, feathered, scaly, creepy crawly” creatures are actively encouraged at Hill-Smith Family Estates’ vineyards. So says Louisa Rose, winemaker and head of sustainability at the Aussie producer. For Rose, biodiversity is vital for sustainable pest management. Many producers want to reduce their use of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides for a bevy of reasons. From improving soil health to cultivating native yeasts, their motivations are diverse. Harpers canvassed wine producers from the world over to understand how they are pursuing greener pest management and what benefits they are reaping.
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It has been nearly a decade since Britain voted to leave the EU on 23 June, 2016. Many years on, this decision – one of the most consequential in recent British politics – continues to be felt across the country, not least in the wine trade. And, with its anniversary fast approaching, Brexit is back in the headlines once again – rapidly developing into an issue for prospective Labour leaders Streeting and Burnham.
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You know things must be bad when industry leaders take time out to highlight the good things that are going on, focusing in on a handful of positives that have bucked the general besieged mood enveloping much of the drinks trade. But there’s a lot to be said for this ‘glass half full’ approach, not least because there are opportunities to be grasped, categories to be leveraged and still a lot of R&D and innovation in our world.
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True hospitality consists of giving the best of yourself to your guests,” once observed Eleanor Roosevelt. But after two years of relentless inflation, compounded by April’s increases in wages and business rates, few operators can still afford to be generous. The UK’s beleaguered hospitality sector finds itself at a critical juncture – venues have already streamlined, simplified and raised prices as far as they dare. Yet further increases may be unavoidable, creating the very real risk of significant impacts on footfall and average spend.
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There is definitely a change in customer behaviour that is perhaps best described as a Scots canniness – careful purchasing,” says Andrew Lundy, owner of Vino in Edinburgh. He, like many of his indie contemporaries, has been squaring up to what could modestly be called ‘challenging times’.
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At a glance, at least from within the trade, Georgia appears to be riding high. With the National Wine Agency of Georgia launching a new, expanded UK campaign across 2026 and many of the sommeliers and quality wine retailers it is aimed at already embracing Georgian wines in some form, there’s been a palpable buzz around this country’s offer for a while. And with 8,000 years clocked up in the production game, 500 indigenous varieties, the allure of qvevris and a perception of often aligning with the fashionable natural winemaking scene, the stories are certainly compelling.
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