People & Opinion - Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade News

Freemark Abbey - a brief review and tasting

Published: 23 September, 2016

A brief look at Freemark Abbey, an iconic Napa winery, and two of their top wines....

Andrew Catchpole: What is in the bottle is not the only thing that counts

Published: 05 September, 2016

Editor Andrew Catchpole argues that while wine quality is certaintly important it is not the only way customers buy, particularly when it comes to trying a new wine.

The Isle of Wight (and Red) Wine Tour

Published: 20 July, 2016

It rains on the Isle of Wight; I remember a rather discouraging sentence that explains this: "There is no dry season in England". And so it was that a typically murky day in June on a short holiday in the Isle of Wight, I came to visit the island's only two remaining commercial wine producers: Adgestone and Rosemary Vineyards. These have in common that both are on the East of the island, which probably helps protect them a little from that wet South Westerly wind everyone is familiar with on the South coast; they benefit from South facing slopes on clay, silt, and sandy soil, which provides good drainage (especially useful in a place with no dry season); and, being maritime, a relatively moderate climate.

Andrew Catchpole: Are you in or out?

Published: 06 June, 2016

To Brexit or not to Brexit? To further labour a Shakespeare reference, that is the question facing the British public as they head for the voting booths for the referendum on remaining or renouncing membership of the European Union on June 23.

Anne Serres, a winner of the 'Sing With Skin Côntact' competition, talks rock legends before her big break

Published: 15 April, 2016

Anne Serres is a Paris-born wine journalist and educator with a penchant for all things rock, who lists Dave Grohl, Linda Ronstadt, Freddie Mercury and Florence Welch among her musical heroes.

Harpers' columnist Guy Woodward set to take the stage at this year's Skin Côntact concert

Published: 12 April, 2016

For a second year in a row the wine trade supergroup Skin Côntact will be taking to the stage next month in an effort raise aid as part of Comic Relief.

Saturday Kitchen's Olly Smith, who's to perform at Skin Côntact, names his musical heroes

Published: 06 April, 2016

For a second year in a row the wine trade supergroup Skin Côntact will be taking to the stage next month in an effort raise aid as part of Comic Relief.

Tim Atkin MW: The story of the world's highest vineyard

Published: 05 February, 2016

In his wonderful book BAD: Or, the Dumbing of America, the late Paul Fussell developed a theory about altitude: the higher the restaurant, the worse the food.

Guy Woodward: The many reasons to be thankful for our wine press

Published: 08 January, 2016

When my name first started appearing at the top of this page each month, I promised myself there was one topic that I would strenuously avoid. Eighteen months in, I'm about to break that promise...

Erin Smith: Change offers us hope for the future

Published: 07 December, 2015

Erin Smith looks back at 2015 and reflects on how change can offer opportunities in 2016

Visiting Burgundian Gem Producers with Jeanne-Marie DeChamps

Published: 01 December, 2015

A vivacious woman with a warm, gregarious personality, Jeanne-Marie attended business school before moving to Burgundy with her then-husband and having two daughters. One could only imagine how difficult it must have been for a woman to be taken seriously by men - especially the kind of old-school producers who may not have encountered women in that capacity before.

Snapshot of Portugal: Wines of Alentejo, Algarve, Setúbal and Tejoe

Published: 23 November, 2015

VINIPAX was created in 2007, organized entirely by the Beja municipality and enologist Anibal Jose-Coutinho, leading wine authority and the author of many books and guides on Portuguese wines. Anibal is passionate about Portuguese wine and is working hard to put it on the world's map.

Tim Atkin MW: Has Alberto Antonini opted to lead rather than follow the market?

Published: 30 October, 2015

Tim Atkin asks whether Alberto Antonini has decided to break away from more traditional styles of wine defined by the likes of Michel Rolland and to forge his own path.

Guy Woodward: Why aren't restaurants offering more wines by the glass?

Published: 30 October, 2015

Along, it seemed, with half the UK's wine press, I was at the launch of Les 110 de Taillevent in London's Cavendish Square last week. My verdict? Go - and be sure to order the crab ravioli. What was most notable about the night, though, was not the guest list or the menu, but that here was a major restaurant being launched off the back of its wine offering.

Perrier-Jouet Introduces 2007 Belle Epoque

Published: 14 October, 2015

Hervé Dechamps is the seventh person to hold the Chef de Cave position in 204 years, and I've been lucky enough to meet with him many times over the years, always learning something new about himself, his approach to wine, and winemaking in general.

Book Review: Money, Taste and Wine: It's Complicated! by Mike Veseth

Published: 08 October, 2015

Mike Veseth appears to be on a mission. Money, Taste and Wine: It's Complicated! follows his Wine Wars and Extreme Wine (reviewed here in May 2014) in discussing aspects of the wine world in a language ordinary mortals can understand.

Jerry Lockspeiser: The question every wine veteran gets asked- what is the BEST wine?

Published: 18 September, 2015

It happened again last week. I was on a flight from Mallorca to London City airport. It was one of those small planes with just two seats either side of the gangway. She was in an aisle seat and I was bolted in next to the window. I was trapped and I wanted to lie.

A TOUR OF DAUNIA RURALE AND THE ALTO TAVOLIERE 22nd TO 25TH JUNE 2015

Published: 15 September, 2015

Daunia Rurale, also known as the 'Alto Tavoliere' or Northern Apulia Tableland, is an area of flat land approximately bordered by Molise to the north, Campania to the west, and the Gargano promontory to the east.