It was a scary moment, at least in wine terms. There I was in the cellar at Domaine Leroy in Vosne-Romanée, tasting some of the most expensive reds on the planet. Meetings with Madame Bize are never relaxing. She combines hauteur with the ability to freeze a glass of Pinot Noir at 10 paces. People who have earned her displeasure are never granted access to her presence again.
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Leading Spanish wine specialist Sarah Jane Evans MW has been awarded the Officer’s Cross of the Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic in recognition of ‘extraordinary services to Spain’.
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Izzy is a twenty-year-old student at York University. Many decades ago I was one there too. In my time students received grants for living costs and tuition fees were paid by the Government. Today those are dealt with by repayable loans. But the loans may not be enough to allow access to all. Like Izzy, for example.
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Due to demand, the entry deadline for the Sommelier Wine Awards 2024 has been extended to 5pm UK time on 29 January.
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Manchester-based Boutinot has become the latest company to sign up to Harpers Sustainability Charter.
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Last August’s duty hikes for wine and spirits have contributed to December’s unexpected rise in UK inflation, it has been revealed, as the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) announces that the rate for the sector is now three times higher than it was this time last year.
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Leading Port and wine distributor Fells has announced strategic changes to the top roles in its leadership team, with Euan Mackay taking on the mantle of MD and Steve Moody transitioning to chairman.
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This week we continue the rollout of our 50 Best Indies 2024 results, celebrating the top merchants from across this dynamic and ever-engaging sector.
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In his final column of 2023, Harpers regular Jerry Lockspeiser looks back over the year, before mulling over some lessons for the one ahead.
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Setting out to discover the renewed dynamism and diversity in Spain’s flagship DO, Harpers teamed up with Wines of Rioja to host an indie merchant buying trip to the region. Andrew Catchpole reports.
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Hallgarten & Novum Wines has been purchased by Coterie Holdings, joining Lay & Wheeler, bonded warehousing Coterie Vaults and wine lender Jera in a growing fine wine portfolio.
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The Wine Society CEO Steve Finlan calls out the government’s lack of engagement with the hard-pressed UK drinks trade.
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Armenia has a thriving wine industry, as Jacopo Mazzeo discovers, but faces an uphill battle to establish itself on the world stage.
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My late friend Michael Cox, who ran Wines of Chile’s UK office for more than a decade, had a great line about so-called “icon” wines. “Is that one word or two?” he would ask with a raised eyebrow. The pun works best in English, but the marketing strategy it points fun at is pretty much universal. Wines promoted as “iconic”, especially
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Their culinary prowess is widely known, but now the Basques are looking to boost their wine credentials with the creation of a €15 million wine and drinks university campus.
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In last month’s article for Harpers, I considered the potential for huge disruption in the UK wine trade from new rules that will allow the blending and processing of wines imported in bulk. They raise the possibility of making drinks that have all the taste and packaging characteristics of established wines while not being subject to the historic restrictions for making them.
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Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has quelled fears of a second duty rise this year in this afternoon’s Autumn Budget, by announcing a freeze until August next year.
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Aulis’s Charles Carron Brown irons out the mistakes commonly made in approaching a somm, helping to bag the wine a diner wants, rather than the one the somm wants them to drink.
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Plumpton College has been awarded the highest National Honour in education, a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its work in wine education and wider impact on the English and Welsh wine sector.
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Jo Gilbert gets clued up on Roberson’s latest venture – the first of its kind platform, which promises to offer consumers the chance to buy English wine, direct from producers, at vineyard prices.
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