Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade News

Technology: the inside track

Published: 31 July, 2019

Temperature-control technology is helping wines to arrive at their destinations with their quality – and reputations – intact, as Jo Gilbert reports.

Think Gin debate: Innovation vs Integrity

Published: 15 July, 2019

Gin is at a crossroads and needs to tread carefully to retain its authentic credentials. Andrew Catchpole listens in on the debate at Harpers Think Gin event.

The end of sex, drugs…and alcohol?

Published: 23 April, 2019

The brains behind synthetic alternative Alcosynth say they’re five years from hitting the market and revolutionising the alcohol industry. Is this really the future, asks Jo Gilbert?

Jerry Lockspieser: Is it time to change the rules about wine?

Published: 18 April, 2019

Many years ago after visiting Vignoble de La Jasse, one of our excellent organic suppliers in the Rhone Valley, the owner Daniel Combe and I went for a coffee in his favourite roadside café. As we sat sipping our drinks, first one then a second large wine transporter went roaring past.

Thinking holistically

Published: 03 April, 2019

Quality juice alone falls short of selling the whole wine experience. Andrew Catchpole tunes into the neuroscience behind good design

Neil Anderson's Key Trends for 2019

Published: 28 January, 2019

Kingsland Drinks’ marketing director Neil Anderson gives his view on eight trends that will impact the wine industry through the coming year

Words to the wise

Published: 21 January, 2019

Fun fact: the Oxford Word of the Year 2018 was “toxic”. Why toxic, you ask? Every year, the eminent Oxford University institution chooses a word or expression that is judged to “reflect the ethos, mood or preoccupations of the passing year” and have “lasting potential as a term of cultural significance”.

Thirsty Work

Published: 19 December, 2018

There’s been no shortage of innovation in wines and spirits over the past year.

Guy Woodward: Who’s gonna make wine woke?

Published: 06 November, 2018

Columnists are meant to have opinions. They’re meant to have answers. But there is one aspect of wine that I am at a loss to fathom. And that is the location of wine’s cool. Where is it? Who’s got it? Because no matter how you try to spin it, wine is simply not hip. It is not sick. And it is most certainly not, my homies, woke.

Trade must embrace consumer trends to capitalise on summer growth

Published: 15 October, 2018

Kingsland Drinks has called for the trade to do more to tap into the modest value growth in sales witnessed over the summer, with innovation and new formats key to winning over new drinkers in the wine category.

Gaucho is a casualty of shifting social mores, say analysts

Published: 16 August, 2018

Healthy eating trends could be contributing to the demise of the casual dining sector as we know it, new research has boldly stated, while calling on the alcohol sector to be a force for change.

Innovation essential if wine to curb falling consumer base

Published: 23 May, 2018

The last major innovation in the wine category was the screwcap – first introduced a couple of decades ago - and the category is going to have to seriously pick up the pace if it is to stay relevant to today’s consumer.

Power to the Punter

Published: 02 May, 2018

Technology is fast empowering the consumer when it comes to engagement, purchasing decisions, driving innovation and shaping the market, with accessible gadgets, widgets, apps and other advances changing the way wine is shipped, sold, delivered and even drunk.

Accolade’s Ade McKeon bullish about UK market as new wine formats launched

Published: 13 April, 2018

At an upbeat presentation at Accolade’s Weybridge UK HQ, where the company launched its 2018 UK Wine Nation Report and unveiled new formats for its wines, general manager Adrian McKeon spoke of “enormous untapped potential in the UK market”, describing it as a “sleeping giant”.

Profile: Kingsland Drinks

Published: 21 March, 2018

By taking an holistic approach from sourcing to supply, Kingsland Drinks is injecting innovation along the way. Andrew Catchpole reports

Wine list innovation

Published: 04 September, 2017

Being presented with a lengthy country-ranged wine tome can be intimidating for any punter which is why the best and most engaging drinks offers have moved far beyond a static listing.

Broadland to drive international reach with US-based facility in pipeline

Published: 24 August, 2017

UK-based Broadland Wineries has revealed that it has plans to build a bottling plant in the States, to further grow the expanding international side of its business in tandem with its domestic operation.

Digital packaging: how smart is your bottle?

Published: 15 August, 2017

The impact of digitisation is so powerful that most marketers and brand designers are only just grasping the need for a more holistic approach, writes James Harmer of Touch design and innovation agency

Innovation: Moving on up

Published: 07 August, 2017

Jo Gilbert asks if wine will ever have its Brewdog moment

Spain has moved beyond a purely price-based discussion say UK buyers

Published: 10 July, 2017

This was the key finding of a recent Harpers Spain round table on Pushing Boundaries and Innovation, with leading buyers from across the trade agreeing that a mixture of necessity and opportunity has shifted the UK focus onto quality over quantity with Spanish wines.