Producer Q&A: Bruce Jack, Bruce Jack Wines

Winemaker Bruce Jack talks to Andrew Catchpole about how his business has learnt from its mistakes and how South Africa is working to improve its premium position.

Jerry Lockspeiser: What’s better spread around than piled up?

You know those times when something comes along that hits you on the head like a sledgehammer? An experience that wakes us up to seeing things from a wider perspective. The jolt we get ripples beyond the issue itself to how we see our lives, both personal and professional.

Buyer’s Spotlight: The Battles to Come

Jason Millar on why the trade needs to get behind the WSTA-led wine duty campaign.

Profile: Queena Wong of Curious Vines

A light bulb suddenly clicked on for Queena Wong, the private wine collector turned founder of Curious Vines during the first Covid lockdown. It was 2020, and for large swathes of the global population – and in many cases, women in particular – their worlds had suddenly become much smaller. Speaking ahead of Curious Vines’ first meet-up of 2025 in January, which focused on wellness via low & no, Wong describes a situation that suddenly felt like women had been “set back ten years”.

Soapbox: Cambridge's Hal Wilson scrutinises government duty forecasts

The government won’t talk to the trade about its assumptions on duty receipts because it gets them from the OBR. The OBR won’t talk to the trade about its assumptions on duty receipts because its only customer is the government. You couldn’t make it up.

Tim Atkin MW: The highs of Tenerife

Where are the highest vineyards in Europe? Switzerland? The Alto Adige perhaps? Both have sites that are vertiginous when you compare them to most of the continent’s classic wine regions. But the correct answer is Spain. Not Gredos or Ribera del Duero, both of which are pretty elevated, but Tenerife. Piedra Fluida’s Los Frontones vineyard in Vilaflor sits at a lofty 1,687m.

Five minutes with Stephen Duckett, Hundred Hills Winery

Andrew Catchpole catches up with a tech-entrepreneur turned fine English winemaker at his Oxfordshire estate.

Producer Q&A: Stellios Boutaris, Ktima Kir-Yianni

Wine has long run in the family of Stellios Boutaris, winemaker & CEO at Ktima Kir-Yianni, and the tradition shows no signs of ending. Andrew Catchpole dropped by.

Soapbox: Miles Beale looks beyond duty

With the end of duty easement now nigh-on a certainty, in the second of our two-parter the WSTA’s Miles Beale swings the focus on to other major issues that lie ahead.

Buyer’s Spotlight: Brunello Di Montalcino 2020

Jason Millar encounters an unexpectedly approachable vintage he predicts will gain popularity particularly with younger audiences.

Jerry Lockspeiser: Five keys to success in 2025

Every year like millions of others in the UK I submit a self-assessment tax return. I don’t personally complete the forms but send all the relevant information to my accountant who processes it and submits the document.

An educated approach at Oxford Wine Company

Andrew Catchpole catches up with the team at the energetic and expanding Oxford Wine Company.

Guy Woodward: Beware the wine cliché

Happy new year! Allow me to begin 2025 with a question. And I want your instinctive, unvarnished response. Tell me… what were your feelings about the warm, personal greeting with which I opened this column?

Five minutes with Paul P John

Andrew Catchpole catches up with Paul P John, founder of the Goan-based Paul John distillery, on his recent visit to London.

Producer Q&A: Damien Malejacq, Tutiac

Jo Gilbert sat down with Damien Malejacq, marketing and communication director at Tutiac, which is now the largest volume producer of white and rosé wine in Bordeaux.

Buyer’s Spotlight: New perspectives on Rioja

Jason Millar gets a new take on how the region can balance out its affordable offerings with more premium expressions.

Jerry Lockspeiser: More sex please, we’re British

We need to be innovative to solve the many challenges facing the UK wine trade. Well, more sex might just be the answer. This could be very good news, being not only pleasurable but without cost to anyone’s business.

Soapbox: Michael Karam on wine’s political power

Tim Atkin MW: Can you taste terroir?

My scientific credentials are embarrassing. I struggled to get a C grade in Physics with Chemistry O-Level in my teens. By dint of rote learning and conversations with winemakers, not to mention a thrilling, all-day visit to a bottling plant, I managed to bluff my way through paper two of the Master of Wine exam about the production of wine. I have a half-arsed understanding of things like pH, sulphites and oxidation, some of the building blocks of wine analysis. Where geology is concerned, I know the difference between sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks. But that’s about it.

Five minutes with Talal Madi, Ixsir

Over a preview of Ixsir’s 2024 vintage, the Lebanese winery’s CEO shares some insights with James Bayley.