To borrow from Charles Dickens, it was the best of times, the worst of times. Within 20 hours of London being awarded the 2012 Olympic Games, the capital had been traumatised by the bombing outrages on its public transport system. There could have been no starker illustration of the influence extraneous events can have on the share prices of hoteliers, pub groups and restaurateurs.
Read more...In the week before Women of Wine presented us with a posing pouch of pouting lovelies, Harpers publishes a picture of the new executive board to the Wine & Spirit Trade Association, featuring, just fancy that, another all-singing, all-dancing, all-male cast.
Read more...Pity poor President Chirac arriving at the G8 summit smarting from the humiliation of France's failed Olympic bid.
Read more...It struck me that for my last column of the season I should send readers off on their summer holidays full of the miseries of my year. Here are three particular low points:
Read more...The team at Harpers, and, we have no doubt, our readers, are passionate about the industry of which we are part. We find the drinks trade fascinating, its products, by and large, a joy. And yet, last Thursday morning, as the gravity of the situation
in London began to filter through to our desks in Swanley, it was difficult to work up much enthusiasm for our work. The nitty-gritty of marketing, production and boardroom machinations can only ever appear trivial, when one is not sure if one's loved ones are alive or dead.
Foster's has just launched two brand new A$17 wines here in Australia: a 2005 South Australian Chardonnay and a Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc under the Early Harvest label. As the name suggests, the wines were made from early-harvested grapes. Both are low in alcohol - 9.5% - but that's not how they will be marketed. Oh no. The angle is that they are naturally lower in calories', and the target market is women aged between 27 and 44' - the Desperate Housewives generation.
Read more...It is unfortunate that Tom Bruce-Gardyne did not contact us before writing his last column (Gaelic Political Football', Harpers 24 June).
Read more...A billionaire Belgian who built his family's scrap metal business into an empire encompassing the media, utilities and oil has set the world's private equity groups and drinks businesses scurrying for their calculators.
Read more...For many in the trade, Vinexpo is a test of strength, stamina, bonhomie and their underarm deodorant. For some, it appears to be a macho thing, a passage into maturity: Boy it was tough, but we got through it with a few late nights, ha, ha, ha.' The number of Vinexpos you have attended is the equivalent to Casanova's notches on his bedpost. Whether it's just boy's banter or not, few seem to have much positive to say about it.
Read more...It's high summer in California, which means coastal fog moves inland sometime after midnight and hangs around in canyons and along rivers until past noon.
Read more...Mrs Oxera prevented Phil from applying to join in the fun with the Full Monty strippers at the Women of Wine's event in London last week, thus depriving those lovely ladies of the chance of setting eyes on the best-toned thorax in wine.
Read more...The City believes that, following EU approval of Pernod Ricard's 7.4 billion takeover of Allied Domecq, the deal is a fait accompli, and that together the two portfolios will provide greater competition to Diageo, which will still be twice as large as the enlarged Pernod Ricard in terms of market capitalisation. Commentators are now speculating on what alliances may be triggered lower down the international pecking order.
Another Vinexpo is over, and it's time to assess its success. While I haven't yet seen the attendance figures, the general opinion of those in charge of stands is that they saw all their existing clients, but saw very few new people. Colleagues on Asian wine magazines say they felt that the Far East was worse represented this year than two years ago.
Read more...The French Minister of Agriculture, Dominique Bussereau, must wonder what he did to upset his boss, Jacques Chirac. After all, it was Chirac who handed him what must be the least enviable portfolio of any minister in Europe since Barbara Castle was told to curb the unions in the late 1960s.
What consumer spending slowdown? That might well be the question posed by Majestic Wine's latest annual figures.
Read more...The remaining results and the National Trophy shortlist will be released at the IWSC's Showcase Tasting Day, taking place on Wednesday 20 July 2005 at the Watermen's Hall in the City of London.
Read more...The following matter is so trivial when compared to the pressing problems the globe faces that it will hardly send shock waves through the nation; but it might - and such is my vague hope - cause some of the editors who commission the work to either find more versatile people to do it or instruct their writers to broaden their remit.
Read more...While Brussels and its Eurocrats are decrying the French and Dutch rejections of the European constitution, a measure of relief is being felt in the boardrooms of Europe's major drinks producers.
Read more...Have you been wondering where Grant Ramage, former senior wine buyer for Oddbins, has been hiding over the past few months? Well let me enlighten you: he's alive and well and living in Melbourne, where he's been hired as a key player in the development of the wine and spirits arm of Australia's biggest retailer, Coles Myer.
Read more...Well, well, well. Pernod and Diageo are at it again, carving up the drinks industry. We've all been wondering what Diageo was going to do regarding the carve-up of Allied Domecq. A lot of the smart money was on getting behind Constellation, but having sliced up Seagram successfully, it must have been a case of better the devil you know.
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