Harpers Wine & Spirit Trade News

Wine GB ‘optimistic’ about 2026 harvest after heatwave summer

Published: 07 August, 2026

Wine GB has said that it is “optimistic” about the size and quality of the UK harvest, in response to speculation about this year’s crop.

Friday read: A new frontier between the vines of Cyprus

Published: 20 December, 2024

As Cyprus celebrates 800 years of its iconic sweet wine, Commandaria, a younger generation of winemakers is proving the island’s indigenous grape varieties can produce some serious dry wines too. Rebecca Pitcairn dives in.

Tim Atkin MW: Albariño under a cloud

Published: 07 June, 2022

In English, it’s just drizzle. In Spanish, it’s more graphic. The literal translation of ‘calabobos’ is something that soaks fools. Rather than a downpour – the sort of weather that sends you scurrying for a doorway – it’s the kind of rain you barely notice, the stuff that drenches your clothes, drip by drip by drip.

Independent alcohol sales enjoy January boom

Published: 15 February, 2021

Newly released data shows that January 2021 saw an increase in demand for alcohol from independent businesses, along with an increase in the price tag compared to 2020.

Amathus Drinks invites consumers to Taste Together online

Published: 29 May, 2020

Wine and Spirit importer, distributor and retailer Amathus Drinks is forging head with a range of interactive online tastings to help customers explore far flung corners of the wine world.

Anjou investors chase drier styles as sweet sales dwindle

Published: 16 July, 2019

The renaissance of dry Chenin wines, together with dwindling sales of sweet wines, have driven investors in Quarts-de–Chaumes – the Loire’s only Grand Cru appellation – to switch production from sweet to dry wines.

Climate change leaving Beaujolais in fear of being priced out of the market by cereal and milk

Published: 11 March, 2019

The temperature is rising in Beaujolais, leaving producers to worry their products will be edged out of consumers’ repertoires by rival crops.

Think Gin: The big flavour debate

Published: 01 May, 2018

The colourful world of flavoured gin was a hot topic at yesterday’s annual Harper’s Think Gin event, coming up time and time again as sub-section driving overall gin growth, yet at the same time dividing opinion on what role it should play within the wider category.