Matteo Furlan: 'Looking Back, Forging Ahead’

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 01 August, 2025

Matteo Furlan, head of wines at The Dorchester, adds to our summer Q&A series of drinks industry insights.

How has business been for you in the first half of 2025 and how do things compare to where you were last year?

Business in 2025 has been great. We all thought the first quarter of the year would have been bad, but things have been actually quite good. There has been a drastic reduction in wine consumption, mainly on the mid-range level, but in general, consumer are drinking higher quality wine, drinking less but spending more.

What have been the biggest challenges and headaches so far this year and how have you sought to mitigate those?

The biggest headaches we all had to deal with have been caused by government decisions. The increase in duty and the new system has no sense; it makes our life much more complicated as duty changes with alcohol level as the vintage changes, affecting pricing but also internal procedure for our finance teams. We now have to deal with the new EPR charges, which no one has much information about, and I am not going into the staffing topic, as I do not want to be boring.

What are you most proud of achieving this year in terms of driving the business forward?

I think our strategy this year has been to invest in our staff members, delivering great training and giving them the opportunity to grow and work together in expanding a great wine program. We are now working in expanding our wine dinner offering, with eight events in 2025, which so far have been sold out. I think that offering something different, fun and engaging it is a great activity, including bespoke events and wine tastings for guests.

Looking ahead to the second half of the year, what is the biggest cause for concern?

I am very positive about the end of the year, we have great events on the books, and the hotel looks like is going to be very busy. But we are living in a very challenging era, with a troubled economy, which suffers from various war conflict around the world; I honestly doubt things can be worse than this.

What single thing could the government do to best improve trading conditions and the success of the drinks sector?

I think the government should support the industry by simplifying things, making decisions oriented to support the industry and help us grow business.

What trends are you seeing in the drinks’ world at the moment, and how do you expect that to change going into the autumn?

We are implementing the selection of No/Low products, I guess many guests want to see better quality products on our list and see a wide range of products available by the glass or as pairing options. Cocktails are always very popular and with guests drinking less we will move towards a wider offering of half bottles, elevating the offering to see if this reflects consumer preferences.

Any other predictions for the second half of the year?

I think consumers will focus a lot on important topics such as sustainability and value for money. As a business, we will have to do our best to deliver quality and make sure service will be up to standard. A lot of restaurants will be struggling, as staffing is a big issue, but this might pose opportunity to the industry to reinvent itself and perhaps make this career a much more appealing one to the new generations.

Quick fire questions…

France, Italy or Spain?

Hard to say, but as an Italian I need to be patriotic and chose Italy!

Georgia, Greece or UK?

Greece, great indigenous grapes and wine with character

‘Normal’ or ‘natural’ wine?

Normal wines, I want a bottle that tastes the same all the time

Cocktails or straight sippin’ spirits?

Cocktail, but I rather like a classic, mainly Negroni and margaritas!

Mixologist or mix it at home?

I do not often go out for cocktails; I like to experiment with mixology at home

Aperitif preference?