Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade News

Atkin: 'Best line-up of Chilean wines I’ve ever tasted'

Published: 08 April, 2021

Tim Atkin MW, Harpers columnist and leading UK wine writer, has launched his 2021 Chile report.

Expanded indie-focused campaign follows rise in Georgia imports

Published: 07 April, 2021

Georgia’s national promotional body has teased a number of new initiatives in the UK market after 2020 showed a marked increase in the number of importers, wholesalers and retailers working with Georgian wines.

Tim Atkin MW: Valuing our old vines

Published: 06 April, 2021

Call it serendipity, call it fate, but there are times when events and conversations seem to align. You go for months without thinking about something and then it’s everywhere, filling your inbox and your brain. Spooky, possums, as Dame Edna Everage once put it.

LWC opens doors to new £12.5m distribution site

Published: 06 April, 2021

LWC Drinks has opened the doors to a new £12.5m state-of-the-art 173,000 square foot bonded distribution centre ahead of the re-opening of the hospitality industry on 12 April.

Denis O’Flynn joins Kingsland Drinks

Published: 06 April, 2021

Kingsland Drinks Group has appointed Denis O’Flynn, previously MD at Pernod Ricard UK and chairman of the WSTA, as a non-executive director of its board.

South America: Cross-party collaboration

Published: 02 April, 2021

James Lawrence looks at the partnership between Chile and Argentina, and how the wine communities are tackling climate change

Spirits overtake wine in shopping baskets

Published: 01 April, 2021

Spirits reached a major milestone in 2020, overtaking wine to become the largest category in terms of penetration in the off-trade for the first time in at least five years.

Jerry Lockspeiser: When wine meets running

Published: 01 April, 2021

The wine trade’s more physically active members will be familiar with the Marathon du Médoc, probably the wine world’s best-known attempt to reconcile the irreconcilable – running 42.2km (26.2 miles) while drinking lots of wine. Twenty-three glasses of Bordeaux’s best to be precise.

Brits embrace at home wine drinking

Published: 31 March, 2021

Driven by Covid-19 lockdowns and closure of the on-trade, the at-home occasion has helped consumers reconnect with wine, with Brits having increasingly embraced wine drinking within the comfort of their own home during the pandemic, according to IWSR research.

Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris postponed to 2022

Published: 31 March, 2021

This year's Wine Paris & Vinexpo Paris exhibition has been moved to 14 to 16 February 2022 due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

WoSA expresses concern over lack of government consultation

Published: 31 March, 2021

Wines of South Africa (WoSA) has expressed concern over the lack of consultation by government in relation to further alcohol bans.

Garçon appoints Angela Mount as supermarket advisor

Published: 31 March, 2021

Garçon Wines has appointed ex-Somerfield wine buyer Angela Mount to the role of supermarket advisor as part of plans to accelerate its potential in the UK.

Organic Argentina

Published: 31 March, 2021

The Andean foothills provide ideal conditions for low-intervention viticulture, allowing organic winemaking to flourish

Australian wine sales exceed supply for third year

Published: 30 March, 2021

Australian wine sales during 2019 to 2020 exceeded supply for the third year in a row impacted by drought conditions and bushfires in some regions of the country.

BWS sales growth slows on lockdown anniversary

Published: 30 March, 2021

Alcohol sales continued to grow in March in the grocery sector boosted by lockdown but this is likely to change as the on-trade reopens, Kantar has predicted.

IMW partners with Avino

Published: 30 March, 2021

The Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW) has selected wine tasting solutions company Avino to supply remote sample bottling and distribution in the UK.

UK sales boom for Concha y Toro

Published: 29 March, 2021

Concha y Toro has revealed the UK was one of its “strongest” performing export markets during 2020 with sales volume up 23%, boosted by top performing brands Casillero del Diablo, Trivento Reserve and Cono Sur Bicicleta.

South America: Strength in adversity

Published: 29 March, 2021

Despite the difficulties of 2020, the pandemic has accelerated ideas within the South American – and indeed global – wine trade that might have otherwise taken years to get off the ground. Chris Wilson reports

Shot in the arm for Germany

Published: 25 March, 2021

In a boost for German winemakers on the global stage, UNESCO has included ‘Wine Culture in Germany’ in its latest national register of intangible national heritage.