The head winemaker of Port producer The Fladgate Partnership has criticised the Instituto dos Vinhos do Douro e Porto (IVDP) for failing to tighten up vineyard designations in the Douro Valley, reports Stuart Peskett.
Read more...For on-trade buyers, South Africa is only good for cheap entry-point wines, predominately Chenin Blanc and Pinotage, according to Andy Bayley and John Graves, sales and marketing director and national accounts director respectively for Atlantic Wine Agencies.
Read more...Jane Hughes, Sainsbury's category manager for wine, has clarified the wine buying set-up.
Read more...Constellation Brands has been rejected in its hostile takeover bid for Canadian wine giant Vincor, which bought UK agent and distributor Western Wines last year.
Read more...Before I landed a job reporting on the world of wine for Harpers, one of my tasks in life was to sell wine at a restaurant near the Royal Courts of Justice in London. Soon after opening, it was apparent that the legions of lawyers who populate Chancery Lane were not turning up in the expected numbers.
The restaurant soon ran out of money - although it was almost half a year later that it began to run out of most of its wines. It all became rather problematic: May I strongly recommend this wine, sir? It has been drinking very nicely.
Champagne Lanson will be the official house Champagne for the Royal Albert Hall for the next three years.
The brand, which has held the contract at the London venue
for the past three years, has also sponsored numerous Premiership football teams, as well as the Wimbledon and French Open tennis tournaments.
This Christmas will see a six-week advertising campaign featuring The Famous Grouse.
Read more...Port, Sherry and Champagne producers are bitterly disappointed that the recently announced and much-trumpeted wine-trade agreement between the United States and the European Union fails to protect their appellations fully. And on the basis that the European Commission has failed to negotiate a complete ban on the ongoing abuse of such names in the USA, they are seeking financial support from the EU in the new US campaign that's about to start and seeks to put an end to such fraudulent practices.
Read more...Wine Australia is launching a new marketing initiative next month which aims to capitalise on the growing popularity of book clubs.
Read more...The six-hour rain shower that hit the Douro in early September was the first the region had received since May - and Port producers and table winemakers alike breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Read more...A new Argentinian wine from the Bottle Green portfolio will be appearing on Channel 4's Richard & Judy show.
Marc Allgrove, European trading director for the Hardy Wine Company, has moved to the UK to support Constellation Europe's sales and marketing team to maximise the sales performance of Hardy Wine Company brands throughout the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe'.
Read more...Cocktail guru Dale DeGroff has designed a range of drinks using Perrier mineral water. DeGroff said that the brand was the height of chic a few years ago' and that his new cocktails will remind everyone what a wonderful creation [Perrier] is'.
Read more...Mondo Search, the Australian-owned headhunting firm that specialises in the drinks industry, is opening a UK office
led by Christian Hughes. A qualified sommelier, Hughes has worked in recruitment since 1996.
A new survey, commissioned by industry-funded campaigners The Portman Group, has showed that four in 10 young women (36%) have been sexually assaulted after getting drunk and are more likely than men to get into fights and arguments.
The research - Anatomy of a Big Night Out' - was conducted among 1,000 18- to 30-year-olds.
Bacardi has ditched its Latin Quarter' advertising campaign for a new series of cinema and TV ads entitled The Way
It Should B'.
Robert Boutflower, managing director of Laymont & Shaw, is leaving the Cornwall-based Spanish specialist for Tanners.
Boutflower will join the Shrewsbury-based importer and retailer as private sales and retail director next week, following nine years with Laymont & Shaw.
At a recent lunch at the Grand Hyatt Shanghai, six Chinese businessmen ordered five bottles of wine. Malcolm Zacanaro,
the executive assistant manager for food and beverage at the hotel, initially thought nothing of it until he saw the bill, which came to more than RMB 120,000 (US$15,000) for the wines alone. Zacanaro says, The Chinese market is extremely price-sensitive. At the top end, hosts want to impress, so they order the most expensive bottles. And at the bottom end, people are less knowledgeable, so they order by price.'
A new radio advertising campaign for Ctes du Rhne wines will break in October and run for two months. This campaign, in addition to the current six-month sponsorship deal with Smooth FM, will take the wine region's total radio investment to more than 320,000.
The radio spots will appear on Magic FM, Total LBC, Classic FM and Smooth FM, among others, and are expected to reach 4.5 million listeners.
Wine lists, like wines, can be balanced but bland, the smack of tokenism as stinging as the mark-up. Balanced the wine list at The Vintners Rooms is not (at least not in any superficial way). But nor is it bland. Better by far to have a distinct identity, personality and quality - and these attributes the list, the wines, the food, the people and the place have in profusion.
Read more...
