Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade News

London City Bond newest Wine GB patron

Published: 02 September, 2026

Wine GB, the trade body for English and Welsh wine, has announced that bonded logistics provider London City Bond (LCB) is the organisation’s latest patron.

Luke Harbor set to join Bolney as general manager

Published: 24 August, 2026

Luke Harbor is set to jump ship from his current role as group beverage director at The Pig Hotels and become general manager at Sussex’s Bolney Wine Estate.

Balfour pens deal with Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club

Published: 20 August, 2026

Kent’s Balfour Winery has signed a five-year partnership with Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club becoming the Premier League team’s English Wine Partner.

Wine GB Awards: Langham gains top gong again

Published: 17 July, 2026

At this year’s buzzy Wine GB Awards at Borough’s 10 Union St, Langham Wine Estate once again showed itself as a leading light in English winemaking taking home four prizes including both Supreme Champion and Best Producer.

Pub bookings up 300% ahead of England’s first World Cup match

Published: 17 June, 2026

In a well needed boost for the hospitality industry, data from hospitality technology firm Zonal can reveal that pub bookings are up 293% year-on-year when comparing today (17 June) with the same day last year.

English still wine emerges from fizz shadow

Published: 15 May, 2026

English still wine remains a niche proposition. According to Worldpanel by Numerator, for the 52-week period ending 22 March 2026, total off-trade value sales sat at just below £3m. To put this figure into perspective, the category represents 0.1% of consumers’ retail still wine spend. The most recently available bottle production figures from Wine GB showed that, in 2024, still wine made up 31% (around 3.3 million bottles) of the total (10.7 million), with sparkling accounting for the remaining 69%.

Record performance for still wines at ninth WineGB Awards

Published: 25 June, 2025

Still wines have outshone sparklers for the first time at the annual WineGB Awards, accounting for more than half the entries and gaining 161 medals compared to sparkling’s 151.

English Wine Week returns with packed 2025 campaign

Published: 20 June, 2025

The annual English Wine Week celebration of homegrown still and sparkling wine is back from 21-29 June with its busiest roster of consumer-facing events to date.

English wine's exciting export outlook

Published: 22 May, 2025

English sparkling wine’s forward march has been a sight to behold in recent years. With a growing reputation both domestically and internationally, producers are looking to channel this steam towards a growing market share. Although the domestic market accounts for the bulk of sales revenue, exports are providing an increasing share of returns.

Denbies gains King’s Award for sustainability credentials

Published: 06 May, 2025

Surrey-based Denbies Wine Estate has been awarded a King’s Award for Enterprise in the Sustainable Development category. The award reflects the producer’s commitment to the environment which has seen it gain a number of green accreditations in recent years.

Visits to UK wineries up 55% in boon for tourism

Published: 24 March, 2025

In 2023, 1.5 million visits were made to UK vineyards and wineries, up 55% on 2022. These visits provide vital support to UK estates, with wine tourism accounting for 25% of total winery income on average.

New DRS launch date reconfirms glass exclusion for England and NI

Published: 20 January, 2023

The newest launch date for a Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) in England and Northern Ireland has re-confirmed that businesses will not be required to participate in a new system for glass recycling. However, confusion still abounds around the roll-out of four different national DRS schemes and how they will work in practice.

Nyetimber predicts record-breaking UK sparkling crop in 2022

Published: 26 September, 2022

Sparkling wine brand Nyetimber is poised to harvest a record area of vines – 325 hectares – to produce well over one million bottles of fizz from vintage 2022.

Nyetimber announces record year as estate leads the way for English sparkling

Published: 14 February, 2022

The UK’s leading English sparkling wine brand, Nyetimber, enjoyed a record year in 2021 in both sales and production. Following its largest ever harvest, Nyetimber’s UK sales increased by 55% on the previous year. Situated in the south of England, the 30-year-old winemakers saw sales in Europe grow by a whopping 89%.

Help Platinum Jubilee celebrations to boost hospitality, urges UKH

Published: 10 January, 2022

As plans are drawn up for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations in June, UKHospitality has petitioned the government to extend the UK's normal licensing hours during the bank holiday weekend.

Scotland announces DRS implementation date

Published: 15 December, 2021

Scotland's Minister for green skills, circular economy and biodiversity has confirmed that the nation's inaugural Deposit Return Scheme (DRS) will launch next year.

Wales’ restrictions relaxed further than England and Scotland with indoor reopening

Published: 12 May, 2021

Wales is the latest member of the UK to announce that hospitality businesses can open indoors from 17 May, following in the footsteps of England and Scotland, but with up to six people from different households able to meet.

UKH calls for recovery roadmap and pledges to assist vaccine roll-out

Published: 05 January, 2021

UK Hospitality (UKH) has called for a road map to recovery and has committed to assisting the vaccine roll-out.

Tiers escalated for much of England

Published: 17 December, 2020

Health secretary Matt Hancock has announced that large swathes of England will go into Tier 3 this weekend, as infection rates re-climb towards their April peak.

Lockdown will end in Tiers (2 and 3 for most of England)

Published: 26 November, 2020

The end of lockdown will bring little relief for England’s hospitality sector, which is returning to the rule of alcohol “only to be served with substantial meals” or stricter for most of the country.