Harpers Wine Stars Awards 2021: Italy

Highlighting the people and places wowing the judges in the Harpers Wine Stars Awards.

Long Read: Accolade shakes up its global fine wine strategy

Events: A hybrid future

With a degree of normality beginning to return, Andrew Catchpole gets a taste of the tastings to come.

Webinar: Exploring alternative premium whites

Modern food styles and lifestyles often naturally lend themselves to white wine, but is the trade doing enough to encourage consumers to trade up and seek out a wider variety of premium white choices or is the premium spotlight more typically shone on reds? And when customers do trade up within whites, is that limited to just a handful of usual suspects rather than embracing the global wealth of premium possibilities?

Five minutes with Kit Ellen, Exton Park

Kit Ellen, MD at Hampshire’s Exton Park, distributed in the UK by Bancroft Wines, talks to Jo Gilbert about the winery’s intriguing shift in focus to ‘reserve blends’, a new standard-bearer for the wines based on its 10-year library of reserves.

Omar Allibhoy to deliver flavour of Spain for Barón de Ley

Spanish chef Omar Allibhoy has teamed up with Kingsland Drinks to “bring the essence of Spain” to the UK in a new campaign supporting Barón de Ley.

Chianti Classico Collection offers taster of ‘new normal’ for events to come

In many ways London’s first significant regional wine event of 2021 bore all the familiar, pre-pandemic hallmarks of a regular Spring tasting. Heading to the India Room at The Oval, transport ran predictably late and the weather was so awful that wind and rain stopped play between Middlesex and Surrey just as Harpers entered the glass-sided cricket viewing gallery-come-tasting room.

Sizing up Spain

Despite the twin pressures of Covid and Brexit, Spain’s wines have managed to stay in relatively good shape thanks to an uplift in off-trade sales. Andrew Catchpole reports.

LWF: Time to bottle it on glass?

As carbon emissions and the broader topic of sustainability climb back up the agenda, one of the more forward-looking sessions at London Wine Fair (LWF) 2021 cut to the heart of the issue.

Guy Woodward: Why we need underdogs

The European Super League was always doomed to failure. Think about it from a wine perspective. It would be like a region – in France, say – initiating a system whereby its châteaux were ranked purely on the basis of how much their wines cost, maybe put into mini ‘divisions’, and then this classification being set in stone in perpetuity, regardless of any change in quality on the part of either the incumbents’ wines or those of any would-be challengers. Surely it would never last…

IWC announces 2021 winners

The International Wine Challenge (IWC) has announced the winners of its 2021 competition, with a haul of 6,800 medals being claimed across over 40 countries.

Gran Vino de Rueda sets bar high for Verdejo

The launch of new quality tier Gran Vino de Rueda in Spain’s leading white DO aims to elevate visibility of the top wines from the region.

Hallgarten Wines clinches Simpsons for the on-trade

Hallgarten & Novum Wines has become the sole distributor for Simpsons Wine Estate’s range in the on-trade – a move which the distributor said would help them capitalise on “sky-rocketing” consumer interest of English wines.

First CBD-infused wines out of South America land in UK

New CBD-infused wines from South America are to make their debut in the UK this month, adding the first Latin American flavour to this nascent category.

ASDA groups wine by grape rather than region

Asda has unveiled a major change in the setup of its wine aisles by becoming the first major UK supermarket to group all wine by grape instead of by country.

Last chance to register: The Diversity of Argentina webinar

With just one day to go until our The Diversity of Argentina webinar – a must for buyers and those interested in the latest category update – Harpers and Wines of Argentina are inviting final sign ups for this free-to-attend webinar on 27 April at 3pm.

Hawke's Bay hails trio of 'outstanding' vintages

Premium New Zealand wine region Hawke’s Bay has reported a third high quality vintage in a row, following “near perfect growing condition”.

Fine Wine Partners rebrands to Accolade Fine Wines

Accolade Wines' fine wines division has been re-named Accolade Fine Wines by the company in order to facilitate a “customer-centric offering” which will move away from focusing on brands only within Australia.

In tribute to Litmus Wines’ Mike Florence

Friends, family and colleagues have paid tribute today to Mike Florence of Litmus Wines, who has sadly passed away following a long battle with Myeloma.

Historic Inglenook winery renews ties with New Generation Wines

Rutherford’s Inglenook winery has renewed its partnership with UK importer and distributor New Generation Wines as it aims to grow its international appeal.