Pinot Grigio is one of the success stories of the past five years. It's been the beneficiary of people somehow getting it into their heads that Chardonnay is a low-grade grape that has to be shunned because some New World producers once made it in a blowsy style.
I disagree with Angela Mount's view (Harpers magazine, December 21) that the on-trade is averse to supermarket brands.
Whatever else happens in 2008, it is already shaping up to be a landmark year for Scotch Whisky.
Read more...From a public health perspective, there are two prevailing views on alcohol policy.
Read more...Politicians and the media are prone to go rather overboard in bemoaning the horrors of alcohol and the havoc it wreaks.
Read more... Fuelled mainly by Australia, the south of France and northern Italy, we are about to be clobbered by an unprecedented wave of "wine cost" inflation in 2008.
Eight months on from my departure from the safety of the grocery retail world, I still appreciate the importance of brands within a supermarket wine range.
Last week Dan Jago, category director for beers, wines and spirits at Tesco's, spoke out at the Australian Outlook conference.
Read more...We have fine literary magazines in this country and decent music journals.
Read more... Alcohol policy is at the top of the Government agenda, and our industry is facing a serious challenge, not least because of an unprecedented campaign from the anti-alcohol lobby.
Regular columnist Michael Paul weighs up the dilemma for wine retailers in achieving consumer satisfaction.
Read more...The many lurid headlines in recent months give the impression that everyone across the nation, young and old, is a binge drinker. The reality is very different.
I am in favour of the proposed expansion of Champagne, although only an idiot would deny that the timing sucks.
Launched in a firestorm of media coverage on November 12, the Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA) has brought renewed attention to the debatearound alcohol and problem drinking in the UK.
Amid the talk of landbanks, planning reform and supermarket codes of practice, what does the Competition Commission's provisional report into the groceries market really mean for producers, wholesalers and retailers of wine and spirits?
Read more...The UK Government's announcement that it plans to introduce new Scotch Whisky legislation in 2008 is a defining moment for the industry in more ways than one.
There is no doubt that Italy has experienced a difficult vintage in volume terms in 2007, with the post harvest Associazione Enologi Enotecnici Italiani report quoting overall figures 18%
down on 2006.
A fortnight ago I visited Australia to address the NSW Wine Press Club on the position of Australian wine in the UK.
I focused on how Australia might make more waves in the
premium wine sector, given the current move from surplus to scarcity. But the more I thought about this, the more I realised the problem.
When the Royal College of Physicians issued guidance in 1987 on safe drinking weekly amounts in units, it was acutely aware - and stated it - that precise figures were hard to come by.
Had I not been watching the rugby on Saturday, I'd have been calling on the TMO to check for a replay on the week's other big talking point, namely what is a unit and how many are we
allowed to have each day without being labelled a "hazardous" drinker?
