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My View: Government must help retail sector to act on green issue

Published:  18 January, 2007

The British Retail Consortium has brought together a string of household -name retailers - from supermarkets to clothing, DIY to homewares - to make a series of industry-wide environmental pledges for the next five years.

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Multiples are bad business

Published:  18 January, 2007

More depressing than the sight of Coco the Clown being elected London mayor has been the latest indication that the middlemen in the UK wine industry are finding life very tough indeed.

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My View: We must move from volume to quality-led strategy

Published:  18 January, 2007

In the current economic climate, supermarkets are battling for market share. Despite their efforts to help curb binge-drinking, in practice they will continue to implement very aggressive promotional programmes which will have a far greater impact on consumption.

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Time to go back to school

Published:  18 January, 2007

Another week, another swingeing tax hike on drink to deter young people from alcohol abuse.

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It's all death and taxes

Published:  18 January, 2007

If you think that it is the job of trade bodies alone to fight the anti-alcohol lobby then you are brain-dead with ghastliness.

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My View: We don't accept 'blended malt' is inferior term

Published:  18 January, 2007

Debate on Scotch whisky is healthy:?our industry is full of people who are passionate about their products.

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My View: Bordeaux 2007 is as good as it could be

Published:  18 January, 2007

Bordeaux 2007 was about as good as it could be, given the dreadful growing season. It was never going to be as good as 2005 and, for once, no one has pretended otherwise.

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This Week: The vodka burger has arrived, supermarket wine quakes in its books, and a record-breaking cocktail event

Published:  18 January, 2007

Lots to talk about this week in Harpers' YouTube and quirkies round-up

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Tasting times for some

Published:  18 January, 2007

What constitutes innovation?

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What a funny old world it is

Published:  18 January, 2007

Having just delivered my 37th and final book on wine to my publisher - and earlier this year resigned from the Circle of Wine Writers on the grounds, firstly, of boredom and, secondly, that the raising of the annual membership fee to 50 was outrageous - I am luxuriating in that wicked feeling one experienced, as a schoolboy, when the end of the academic year came and with it that sense, not just of release, but that the world would never be the same again.

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My View: Pregnancy Labelling

Published:  18 January, 2007

Last month the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) outlined new guidelines for alcohol consumption during pregnancy.

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No, size isn't everything

Published:  18 January, 2007

A wine list is like a penis. The consensus is the longer the better.

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My View: Let's sort out whisky terminology

Published:  18 January, 2007

New laws on the future of Scotch whisky, proposed by DEFRA and the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA), will have far-reaching effects.

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Now it's time for solutions

Published:  18 January, 2007

There was plenty of bad news for the industry in last week's Budget and you know the really worrying thing? It could get worse.

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This Week: Snake Vodka, Sarkozy questions the wine list and Guinness' new ad is mimicked elsewhere

Published:  18 January, 2007

Lots to talk about this week in Harpers' YouTube and quirkies round-up

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My View: Drinks trade must show government how marketing changes behaviour

Published:  18 January, 2007

Alcohol-induced liver disease develops silently, but often presents with an acute fatal illness. Where I work in the clinical hepatology at Southampton General Hospital, half our customers die.

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This Week: An Absolutely Fabulous wine tasting, Sir Sean loves his whisky and no grape suprises when it came to one man's lawsuit

Published:  18 January, 2007

Lots to talk about this week in Harpers' YouTube and quirkies round-up

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My View: Press ahead with moderate price increases

Published:  18 January, 2007

Let's start with the bad news - nearly everyone involved in supplying wine to the UK market is confronting constrained supply, rising energy costs, hardening currencies against sterling, attacks by the media against binge drinking and an economic downturn.

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Screwcaps to the rescue

Published:  18 January, 2007

I swear the following anecdote is true; only certain personal details have been changed.

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This Week: The world's largest wine bottle is sold, Danny Boy is banned from Irish pubs and a Frenchman with a penchant for Pernod

Published:  18 January, 2007

Lots to talk about this week in Harpers' YouTube and quirkies round-up

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