Scotland Food & Drink was launched with a mission to grow the industry from £7.5bn to £10bn by 2017 and to build Scotland's international reputation as 'A Land of Food and Drink'.
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As Gordon Brown and the Chancellor drop hints that tax cuts may be on the way to help Britain's hard-pressed families, a committee of MPs says it's time to look at setting a minimum price for alcohol, which is simply another consumer tax.
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"We're adding a little something to this month's sales contest. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado. Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired."
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If Troy Christensen, Dan Jago, Matthew Dickinson, Neil Bruce and Angela Mount are all coming together for a two-day event, then the first thought that crosses your mind is there must be some new drinks conference in the offering.
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"JK Rowling does not write very well, does she?" This outburst from one of my Creative Writing course lecturers reminded me forcibly of the deprecating comments made by some of our most esteemed wine writers about Blossom Hill.
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A year on it was great to see our producers again. We communicate a lot on a regular basis and discuss how things are going on the telephone but it was really good to get back to the heart of what we are doing.
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I'm not happy today for three reasons. One, it's Monday and two, it's raining. As if they weren't reason enough, I find out this morning that those killjoys over at Whitehall want to ban happy hour. BAN happy hour? In a country this miserable?! Mr Brown, I kid you not, this is not the way to get the vote of a twenty-something-living-in-London.
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Many thanks to James Forbes of Wines Of Argentina and to Richard Siddle of this fine publication for a divine dinner and their warm company last Monday. With our trip to Argentina still fresh in our minds (and Facebook profiles) my fellow 'Steak Your Claim' winners and I were treated in the diva manner to which we had become accustomed with a slap up Argentinean meal at Santa Maria del Sur in Battersea.
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Australia might be a huge country but the world is a small place. After sniffing, swirling and slurping our way through more than 600 wines, the 2006 Mayford Wines Tempranillo won Best Wine of Show.
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I was talking to a friend who is a partner in a commercial architectural practice. Their industry is now facing uncertainty. He thinks his firm will come through because it realised four years ago that the property bubble would burst and made provisions.
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Being British, I like to talk about the weather. Today, I decided I ought to visit drought stricken areas more often. Whenever I go, it rains. On the last day of judging, I was rudely awoken by rain, which persisted all day.
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Other than the colour of his skin and the fact he wasn't a democrat, one of the key actors in Barack Obama's historic win in the US presidential elections this week was that he was regarded as a relative newcomer to the machinations of Washington.
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The new owners of Oddbins say they want to put the odd back in the business, but having tasted some of its latest wines, it's the bins that need sorting out.
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Is wine an art or a science? Books have been devoted to the subject and the debate rages on. But in Mildura today eight judges at the Alternative Varieties Show settled the issue once and for all.
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Having just recently returned from a trip to Lebanon to visit our producers, I am blown away again by how fundamentally different tastes, preferences and values can be from country to country.
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Remember where you were when you saw man first walk on the moon, or heard that Princess Diana had died? What about where you were when you witnessed America elect its first black president? I was tasting a line up of Aussie Gewurztraminers.
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Harpers' features editor Rebecca Gibb is in Mildura, judging at the Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show this week. In between tasting more than 600 wines, Rebecca will be filling us in on her trip in a series of blogs. Here's blog number one...
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Jake Crimmin was one of the winners of the recent Harper's Wines of Argentina competition. Whilst he was in Argentina enjoying his prize, Jake wrote about the experience, and has now been bitten by the writing bug enough to want to blog for us on a regular basis! Jake's 'Diary of a Sommelier' blog will be updated weekly. Below is the first installment...
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Last week the Port and Douro Wines Institute held its annual tasting, where a broad spectrum of Port shippers and styles were available. Unsurprisingly, the question of how these drinks will fare in the economic downturn wasn't far from everyone's minds.
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The impact and repercussions of last month's Dispatches programme on Channel 4 and my fellow columnist Malcolm Gluck's recent article regarding 'the unpalatable truth behind the wine industry', are still being felt.
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