I spent Christmas in South Carolina, to where my wife’s parents have just moved after three decades in Colorado. What with the new home and the festive season, there was much to celebrate. All of which, naturally, called for a special bottle.
Read more...
Andrew Catchpole catches up with Guillermo Calderón, Casas del Bosque’s sales director and a Casablanca Sauvignon and Pinot specialist, to discuss the trends shaping Chile.
Read more...
The launch of a smartly-packaged £395 English sparkling wine may show quite some chutzpah, but as James Lawrence reports, it’s not alone in helping nudge the category into triple figure pricing.
Read more...
With a great story behind it, Cargo Cult Spiced Rum looks set to raise the premium for the category. Andrew Catchpole meets the man behind the mission.
Read more...
In his final column of 2023, Harpers regular Jerry Lockspeiser looks back over the year, before mulling over some lessons for the one ahead.
Read more...
The Wine Society CEO Steve Finlan calls out the government’s lack of engagement with the hard-pressed UK drinks trade.
Read more...
Jo Gilbert catches up with Berry Bros & Rudd’s newest head of buying, to discover what’s next for Britain’s oldest wine merchant.
Read more...
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
Read more...
Embracing regenerative viticulture, lightweight bottles and with an Offshoot label to appeal to a different demographic, this family winery stands out from the Marlborough crowd. Andrew Catchpole catches up with Ed Macdonald GM of Hunter’s Wines.
Read more...
As he rolls out a new series of wine dinners with group head chef and brother Jack across their restaurants, Charlie Stein, director, Rick Stein Group, talks Andrew Catchpole through his approach to wine and food pairing.
Read more...
In partnership with Champagne Castelnau.
Read more...
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.
Read more...
With international sherry week upon us, sherry educator and self-confessed Jerez ‘anorak’ Paul Morgan explains to Andrew Catchpole how his passion has translated into a month-long event at Hove’s Fourth & Church.
Read more...
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.
Read more...
France’s leading producer remains very much a family affair, bucking the notion that big is staid. Andrew Catchpole discovers more.
Read more...
I've been trying to figure out just why I’m so instinctively hostile to celebrity wines. Ultimately, I suspect it’s an inherent aversion to smug egotists enjoying gushing media coverage and immediate space on supermarket shelves despite a complete lack of winemaking credentials. I also suspect I’m not alone in this stance. But journalistic rigour demands that I essay a more objective appraisal of the worth of such wines to the industry, so in a bid to get over myself, here goes…
Read more...
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.
Read more...
Working with 700 microplots of vines of between 140 and 190 years old, Jaime Suárez, winemaker at Dominio De Atauta, shares his passion with Andrew Catchpole.
I realise that is a pretty dramatic title. But none of us should underestimate the game changing potential of the changes the UK government intends to introduce around wine beginning in early 2024.
Read more...
Jo Gilbert visited the White Hart pub & restaurant in East Sussex to find out how the venue is looking to become a hub for English wine.
Read more...
