Under the stewardship of Tim Etchells - managing director of consumer exhibitions and, for 15 years, the man behind the BBC Good Food Show - The Wine Show London landed on the streets of Islington and seemingly conjured 12,000 visitors with a profile that could have been plucked straight from a marketing director's head: relatively young, relatively affluent and relatively interested. Although most exhibitors were disappointed about the level of sales, they welcomed the chance to sample to the type of person that is very hard to reach', as a spokesperson for Brown Brothers put it.
Read more...
|
Is the new bar going well?
I'm really pleased; the first couple of Mondays were quiet, but otherwise it's been filling up. Brett and I will take a few days off as we get settled, but not too many. Most places step back, thinking they've got it sussed after some initial success, and that's where they go wrong.
Read more...
Two years ago, in a conference centre in Dublin, the drinks industry gathered to discuss what has become, in the context of governmental concern about the rising incidence of binge drinking, one of the major issues facing the drinks industry today: how to market alcohol responsibly and encourage sensible drinking. Spread over two days, the conference attracted top-level executives from all the major global drinks firms and retailers, and it also featured a programme of learned papers from experts on health, marketing and governmental policy. As one might expect at a conference, the first evening was a time for networking, or, in layman's parlance, an almighty bender. And so on the second morning, after surveying a roomful of bleary-eyed, tired and emotional delegates, the first speaker observed wryly: Well, if this is what happens at a conference on responsible drinking, I'd love to go and speak at an event on celibacy!'
Read more...
John Casella is the Pete Waterman of wine. For those familiar with the two, that might sound an unlikely comparison, and certainly the softly spoken family man behind Yellow Tail has next to nothing in common with brash pop impresario Waterman in terms of personality, career, origins or lifestyle. And yet, consider the two men's fates. Waterman, most recently a pundit on TV's Pop Idol and several of its spin-offs, was formerly the Svengali behind the careers of such 1980s pop puppets as Rick Astley, Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan. Through these and other ciphers he has been responsible for more number-one singles than The Beatles and earned himself millions of pounds in royalties; still, despite all of this success, something rankles with him: critical approval has always eluded him. In fact, Waterman's name in rock and pop critical circles and beyond is all but synonymous with naff, manufactured rubbish.
Read more...
How did you come to own a hotel and three pubs?
It was a family business, which I joined after university. I had no intention of going into the trade, but my uncle asked me to help out because he had a ropy old list full of spelling mistakes and bad wine. That's all gone now, although we're different from, say, the Hotel du Vin, where a sommelier chooses each list at every place. I've always been scared of the person with grapes on the lapel, and I think customers are as well. Because our lists are full of comments and laid out by style, it's amazing how little we get asked for advice.
Read more...
Drinks Industry 2005
23-25 November
Crocus Expo
Moscow, Russia
Organisers: Asti Group Exhibition Company
Smolensky Passage, 3 Smolenskaya Square, Moscow, Russia
Tel: +7 (095) 797 6914
info@drinksindustry.ru
www.drinksindustry.ru
Read more...
The lifeblood of any industry - especially one where the product is made overseas - is those who sell its products. As a role, sales may not have the glamour of the marketer or the importance of the buyer, but good salespeople are arguably the most coveted (and hardest to retain) employees in any business, in any sector.
Read more...
What made you choose The Connaught?
I spent a few months as the head sommelier for Aurora, but I didn't like the feeling of the City. They don't want sommeliers, they just want to order Sancerre or Chablis and have a quick lunch so they can go back to work and do their business again. I prefer Mayfair. People are traditional but more open to trying Riesling, say, or something like Amarone La Marega from Salette.
Read more...
The most exciting grape grown in South Tyrol, at least among its reds, is the Lagrein, a variety found only there and in the adjacent hills of northern Trentino. Scholars differ about the area where the Lagrein grape originated. Some say it comes from the Vallagarina area, which is a valley south of Trento. This theory finds some support in the name of the variety, since Lagarino is the Italian name for Lagrein. Others believe it first appeared near Gries in the area of Bozen, where Benedictine friars of the Muri convent have cultivated it since 1600. But most scholars agree that the real origin
is Lagaria, a Roman coastal area near the Ionic Sea, or Greece, where lagaros means hanging grape, which in south Italy became lagarinum.
Read more...
What is it about RTDs that people seem to have such a problem with? It's been a good 10 years since the Hooch and Two Dogs alcopop' stigma hit the category, and yet the blame for any alcohol-related problems is still often placed at the RTD door. On top of this criticism, the sector has had to contend with a year-on-year decline and a constant assertion from the trade that RTDs have had their day. Is this really fair? In spite of all the negativity, new brands and alternative versions of established brands are continuing to hit the shelves at speed - there's even talk of Diageo introducing a whole new range of RTDs to the UK market. Are these the activities of an industry that's about to pop its clogs?
Read more...
John Hoskins MW owns the Old Bridge Hotel in Huntingdon, a large, red-brick building on the edge of town. The A14 clatters by noisily at the foot of the garden, but poplars are beginning to cover up the concrete girders, and the south-facing terrace looks instead in the direction of the River Ouse, which flows gently by. It's a pleasant place to sit on a summer's day, and people are attracted by the wine list, too, in a part of the country bereft of decent selections. Hoskins has five major suppliers - Liberty, Noel Young, Morris & Verdin, Amps Fine Wines and Lay & Wheeler - and has remained loyal to them. So you'd think these merchants would be falling over themselves to conduct business properly with Hoskins, especially since he also has three pubs in the area.
Read more...
I think UK consumers are absolutely ready for German wines. In fact, they already prefer them - they just don't know it yet.' With these bold words, Nicky Forrest of Phipps PR puts the
case for a Teutonic revival. Phipps was appointed UK agent for the German Wine Institute in 1998, and Nicky has been directly involved ever since. Yet, given a history of year-on-year decline and margins cut to the bone, as well as the level of ingrained prejudice among consumers and the trade, she and her company face one hell of a challenge.
Read more...
When Warren Adamson was starting as an apprentice in worsted spinning at Feltex Yarns in New Zealand, Fernando Ferr was graduating from the Universidad Catlica Argentina with a business administration degree.
Read more...
Where did you start in the wine trade?
Avery's, after I came down from Cambridge. It was a long time ago - the days before the Australian wine industry had bounced back from the depths of liqueur Muscat and jug wines. Monty Python weren't too far off the mark in their assessment of wine from Down Under: Chateau Blue Too has won many prizes, not least for its flavour and its lingering afterburn.' All the local restaurateurs used to buy from Averys because it was the big name in the West Country. There were no reps, so when you turned up, they were pathetically grateful just to see somebody.
Read more...
Rewind a few years, and vodka and gin were in the ascendancy in style bars across the country. Cocktails such as the cosmopolitan were de rigueur, and vodka in particular was seen as the base spirit of choice for creative bartenders. Meanwhile, poor old rum had a rough image: a relic from the past century, with the odd pirate gag never too far away. But now, rum is beginning to shake off these connotations and is gaining the respect from bartenders - and more importantly, consumers - that it quite clearly deserves. And it should
be said that while it's easy to poke fun at the maritime connections, these only exist because they played a crucial role in the history of rum itself.
Read more...
Alex Anson, it seems, didn't have your usual boyhood ambition: there were, for him, no dreams of lifting the World Cup, landing on Mars or saving the world; he never saw the appeal of being a fireman or a train driver. The young Anson had other ideas. What he wanted to be more than anything else in the world was, of all things, a wine retailer.
Read more...
How did your family come to own not just a hotel but also an island?
My parents purchased the island in 1973 with the intention of creating a hotel out of the main house. Initially, the idea was to run it as a hotel in summer and a religious retreat in the winter, because my father was a Church of Scotland minister. But at the end of the first year, after running the hotel for four months without a break, they decided the idea of the religious retreat wouldn't work and just kept it as a seasonal hotel. When they opened in 1973, every bedroom had its own bathroom, which was unusual for the time and meant they had a leg up on everyone else.
Read more...
What is your wine-buying strategy?
Read more...
With all the growth in wine production seen in China of late, a key question is whether there are enough local grapes to meet demand. The largest vineyard areas are in Xinjiang province in the west (northern Silk route) and the eastern coastal province of Shandong, where most of the grapes used for wine production are grown. OIV forecasts 450,000 hectares (ha) for 2004, making China fifth in the world rankings, with more land planted to vines than the United States. This figure
is more than double the amount of 1997, which was under 200,000 hectares. Industry analysts calculate 15-20% of
the total vineyard area to be dedicated for grape-wine production, which is 70,000-90,000ha. Bo Tan at Macquarie Research says total grape production is expected to grow 17% per year.
Read more...
Wines of South Africa (WOSA) is holding its Mega Tasting, aimed at the pan-European market, on Tuesday 11 October and Wednesday 12 October at Old Billingsgate Market, which looks on to the River Thames. More than 200 producers will be taking part, representing boutique vintners, corporates, cooperatives, garagistes and ngociants. Focusing on the Cape's biodiversity and the effect this has on the country's wines, and including a range of themed tastings, this event is set to be one of the biggest generic national tastings ever presented by a wine-producing country. For more information, call Sophie Waggett on 020 8947 7171 or e-mail her at sophie@winesofsa.com
Read more...
